Following Abraham Lincoln’s election as the 16th U.S. president on November 6, 1860, the secession crisis unfolded as South Carolina left the Union, other Southern states seceded in rapid succession, state legislatures and troops took opposing actions, Kansas entered the Union as the 34th state, the Provisional Confederate Constitution was adopted in Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as provisional president of the Confederate States of America, and Lincoln was sworn in as president of the United States of America. Fighting began on April 12, 1861, with Confederate fire on Fort Sumter, after which Lincoln declared a state of insurrection and called for 75,000 troops, Virginia voted to secede, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina also seceded, Richmond became the Confederate capital, and Virginians ratified secession. Campaigns and battles followed through 1861, including Union victory at Rich Mountain, Confederate victory at the First Battle of Manassas or Bull Run, George B. McClellan’s appointment to command the Departments of NE Virginia and Washington, the Confederate defeat of Union forces at Wilson’s Creek, the unsuccessful Confederate attack at Santa Rosa Island, and the Battle of Ball’s Bluff on October 21. Later that year, USS San Jacinto stopped the British steamer Trent and removed Confederate commissioners James Mason and John Slidell, the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War first met, Union forces won a minor engagement at Dranesville, and on February 8, 1862, General Stone was arrested at the urging of the Joint Committee, which sought to use him as a scapegoat for the Union’s defeat at Ball’s Bluff.