 Even before hostilities began in April 1861, he seized U.S. forts on the Alabama Gulf Coast (Morgan and Gaines) and the arsenal in Mount Vernon, in January 1861, sent agents to buy rifles in the Northeast, and scoured the state for weapons.Despite strong resistance in the northern part of the state, Alabama seceded by vote 61-39 and formed the Confederate States of America.Congressman Williamson R.W.