Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America

[1] Although the General Convention of the Episcopal Church was held in Richmond, Virginia in October of 1859, just before John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Southern states did not begin to secede from the Union for another year.

Beginning with the secession of South Carolina in December 1860, Southern dioceses struggled over the issue of their status in the Episcopal Church.

On March 23, 1861, Polk and Stephen Elliott of Georgia, the two most senior bishops, requested the Confederate dioceses send representatives to Montgomery, Alabama, for a meeting on July 3.

"[2] From October 16–20, a convention was held at Trinity Church (now Cathedral) in Columbia, South Carolina, which recommended the proposed constitution to the dioceses for ratification.

[3] After the South's defeat, the Southern dioceses rejoined the Episcopal Church in the United States at its 1865 General Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The only Southern bishop consecrated during the separation, Richard Hooker Wilmer, was accepted into the re-united church, notwithstanding that he was under house arrest in Alabama for instructing his clergy not to pray for the President of the United States as part of his opposition to military rule.