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In a few posts here, it has been repeated that the Confederacy declared war on the Union.

For the benefit of the readers of this thread, this is not true.

Using the words “confederacy, war, declaration” in Internet searches produces no documentation from “The Official Records of the War....”, or the records of either the Confederate or Union Congressional records.

Some posters and bloggers make the claim using a May 6th, 1861 document, but that document is not a war declaration. Jefferson Davis approved a bill from the Confederate Congress that confirmed that a state of war existed between the Confederacy and the Union.

No request or declaration of war was made by the Confederate congress.

PeaRidge: "Some posters and bloggers make the claim using a May 6th, 1861 document, but that document is not a war declaration.
Jefferson Davis approved a bill from the Confederate Congress that confirmed that a state of war existed between the Confederacy and the Union.
No request or declaration of war was made by the Confederate congress."

Now you're just quibbling over semantics.
As with Shakespeare's famous rose which smells the same regardless of what name we give it, likewise a declaration of war supports the same purposes, regardless of what it's called.

So of course the May 6, 1861 Confederate bill was a declaration of war.
It did everything a declaration of war normally does, especially providing war-time powers to the central authorities.

It's term-of-art, that

"war exists between the Confederate States and the Government of the United States"

are the same words President Roosevelt used after Pearl Harbor:

"I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, Dec. 7, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire."

FDR's request resulted in this language in the declaration:
"the state of war...has thus been thrust upon the United States"

It was just as much a declaration of war as the document used by King George in August 1775 to declare war on American colonists.

Finally, remember our pro-Confederates are the same people who call President Lincoln's totally peaceful First Inaugural "a declaration of war".
See rustbucket's post #1,704 above.