<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> Mississippi was the second southern state to declare its secession from the United States of America, on January 9, 1861 . It joined with six other southern slave - holding states to form the Confederacy on February 4, 1861 . Mississippi's location along the lengthy Mississippi River made it strategically important to both the Union and the Confederacy; dozens of battles were fought in the state as armies repeatedly clashed near key towns and transportation nodes . </P> <P> Mississippian troops fought in every major theater of the American Civil War, although most were concentrated in the Western Theater . Confederate president Jefferson Davis was a Mississippi politician and operated a large slave cotton plantation there . Prominent Mississippian generals during the war included William Barksdale, Carnot Posey, Wirt Adams, Earl Van Dorn, Robert Lowry and Benjamin G. Humphreys . </P>

Mississippi was the first state to secede from the union