Bobby --

We tend to blend the events of 1860-61 leading towards war. There was a definite progression, step by step, towards the final break. Many who had adamantly opposed secession finally were pursuaded to take up arms by Lincoln's call for troops to put down the rebellion. 'Unionists' like these fought for Southern independence all the way to Appomattox.

Others came over to the Southern rights side much earlier, right after John Brown's raid. Reaction to Brown's trial and execution convinced large numbers of Southerners that people in the North actively sympathized with abolition terrorists and their plans to murder slaveholders.