On Sunday, January 6, 1861, in New York, Mayor Fernando Wood proposed that New York City should secede and become a free city, trading freely with both the North and South. Nothing ever became of the proposal.
It was the start of a busy week. On successive days -- Wednesday, Thursday and Friday -- three states would follow South Carolina out of the Union. On Wednesday, war would almost begin when the U. S. government attempted to reinforce and resupply the garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston.
As states moved toward secession, state authorities acted quickly to seize the Federal property, especially the arsenals and the forts that guarded the harbors. Florida would be the state to secede on Thursday, but on this date in 1861, the Sunday before, state troops seized the U.S. Arsenal at Apalachicola with no resistance.
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