Editing Confederate Arizona (section)

== Secession ==
[[File:Map of the United States, and Territories Together with Canada From Mitchell's New General Atlas Philadelphia SA Mitchell Jr 1861.jpg|thumbnail|left|1861 map showing the Confederate Arizona Territory]]
After the start of the American Civil War, support for the Confederacy was strong in the southern part of the New Mexico Territory. Some residents felt neglected by the United States government. They worried about the lack of sufficient troops to fight the [[Apache]]. These Native Americans were attacking White settlers, killing off ranchers and mining camps all over [[Traditional Arizona]].  This became open warfare following the February 3–9, 1861 [[Bascom affair|Bascom Affair]], that brought [[Cochise]] into the war.  Arizona settlers were also disturbed by the closing of the [[Butterfield Overland Mail]] route and their stations in March 1861, which had connected the Arizona [[frontier]] colonies to the [[Eastern United States|East]] and [[California]].

In March 1861, the citizens of Mesilla called a [[Secession in the United States|secession]] convention to join the Confederacy. On March 16 the convention adopted a secession ordinance, citing the region's common interests and geography with the Confederacy, their political sympathy with the Southern secession movement, their opposition to the "sectional" party, the "Black" Republicans, the need of frontier protection, and the loss of postal service routes under the United States government, as reasons for their separation.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.csawardept.com/documents/secession/AZ/ |title=Ordinance of secession. |access-date=July 5, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150622110945/http://www.csawardept.com/documents/secession/AZ/ |archive-date=June 22, 2015 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref> The ordinance proposed the question of secession to the western portions of the territory. On March 28 a second convention in present-day Tucson met and ratified the ordinance. The conventions subsequently established a provisional territorial government for the Confederate "Territory of Arizona." Owings was elected again as provisional governor and [[Granville Henderson Oury]] was chosen as a delegate to petition for the territory's admission into the Confederacy.