The Civil War began before shots were fired on Fort Sumter. During the four months between Lincoln’s election on November 7, 1860, and his inauguration on March 4, 1861, the Deep South seceded from the Union, seized all the federal forts, arsenals, navy yards, custom houses, revenue cutters, mints, courts and post offices within their borders except Fort Sumter in South Carolina, and Forts Pickens, Taylor, and Jefferson in Florida. This dissertation investigates the rationale, methods, and consequences of these dramatic captures. Northern and southern reaction to these aggressive measures demonstrate that the seizures were acts of war and show that the Civil War actually began long before Edmund Ruffin fired that famous first shot at Fort Sumter.