Indeed...a confederacy or confederation is literally a loose alliance of states(politically, economically, culturally and militarily) with a common goal or purpose as were the CSA and the preceeding 13 original states of the Union under our nation's first written set of laws, the Articles of Confederation. The idea of states being in a confederation with sovereign rights rather than in a "perpetual" state of union was commonplace throughout the south from the early national period and forward. This was a main ingredient of the states' rights argument as well.