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First of all my character is a made up name with made up family members. However, some of the persons he knows are actually persons from the Civil war.
I did want to do a first person tale of one of my seven Confederate ancestors but they being young at the war's start did not join the Confederate army until 1862 and 1863. I can't make myself wait a year before joining in on this first person discussion! But to honor my family's pro Confederate feelings, I include them as close friends of John Blair.
I started off my first person character as being a young man from Gainesville, Texas, one of the places I grew up. However I am going to scratch that. I decided to change character to a young man of Huntsville Alabama for several purposes. One, I want my own Tims family to be included somewhere in my writings. (They lived in Choctaw County, Alabama, not far from where my character, John Blair lives). Two, I want John to be near the center of the secession and Confederate independence movement of early spring 1861 including a visit to Montgomery. Three, I want John to be at the 1st battle of Manassas. (There were no Texas regiments at that battle) and the last reason you will just have to find out in time!
So lets get to know John Calhoun Blair.
Here is the Biography of John Calhoun Blair

Born January 9, 1836.
He a twenty-five year old son of wealthy cotton farmer.
His first and middle name is in honor of John C Calhoun who was a senator from South Carolina, when John was born.
John was born near Georgetown, South Carolina. His Father is of Celtic heritage but his Mother was full blooded Cherokee. His Mother, Adsila Blair, died while giving birth to his brother (born March of 1843), Arthur Blair. John's Father, Allen Blair, never remarried.

Allen, following failed business ventures and increasing debt decided to take his family to Texas, which had just become the 28th state in the Union. There he hoped to purchase enough cheap land to crop successfully.
In 1846 the family sold everything and headed west. They were joined also by Allen's two brothers.
However, near Huntsville Alabama Allen learned that hundreds acres of rich Alabama lands surrendered by a nearby Indian reservation was being auctioned. For an every dime of wealth he owned, Allen as able to purchase a modest eighty acres from this.

John grew and as he did his family became more wealthy as their cotton investment soared. By 1860 his father owned 500 acres of cotton. They called their plot, Liberty Lot.
John and his brother loyally remained at their Father's side helping with the business of the family crop and management. In 1859, John Blair enrolled into the University of Alabama to study to become a minister. Home during Christmas leave of 1860 and with Alabama's secession looming he did not return to his courses in 1861.

John's two uncles who had come to Alabama with the family in 1846 decided to continue to Texas after Allen and his family's financial future was secured. Both married into Hispanic families of means. Together they lead a successful law firm in San Antonio.

In Alabama, John, his brother Arthur, and father, Allen Blair are solid Democrats. True to their heritage and state, they are ardent supporters of state sovereignty. Closely following the events in Kansas, Harpers Ferry, and Washington during the past several years, the issue of secession from the union was, unlike most families in America at the time, something the three men never argued about.
They each had studied the Constitution like they studied their family Bible. And the three believed that secession was as much of a right guaranteed in that Constitution as any part of the Bible was true. And if their neighbors and state chose to exercise and defend that right, they too would lend their lives.

Allen Blair wrote to his friend, Governor Andrew Moore December 30, 1860, "As the light of our union with the government of Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin begins to fade...may the light of the rights and liberty that they created continue to burn. It appears certain that the marriage between Alabama and the Federal government must and ought to seize. For the bride to nurse the insults, injuries, and abuse another season would make her unworthy of honor, unworthy any longer to call herself, Alabama!"
Allen showed the letter to his two sons, Arthur and John who nodded in agreement. The three had submitted their support to the decision their state would surely make following Lincoln's 1860 election.
And so in 1861 Alabama leaves the Union. And with his Father and Brother, all his family, and all the South begins upon a new and unknown course. A course through the most tragic and defining moment in history.
Hope you all enjoy the unfolding of this American tale of a young Southerner who's fate and destiny will