[Bubba Ho-Tep]

The legislatures of the seceding states drafted articles of secession which were ratified and signed by the Governors of each of those states. Then the secession went out for referendum to be decided by the citizens.

Actually, only a few states took actual secession articles to the voters. In most, the legislatures called for the election of delegates to a convention, and those delegates voted secession up or down. In the case of Louisiana, for example, the convention held a specific vote on submitting actual secession to the people, as required by the state constitution, and rejected the idea 84-45.

[central_va]

Either way it was not “chaotic”. The war was chaotic, the secession was not.