Confederate draft riots over '20 Nigger Law' ?

Is there any way that draft riots could've broken out in the CSA 1862-63 over the so-called '20 Nigger Law', based on the perception among poor whites of 'rich man's war, poor man's fight' ? What triggering factor- similar to the OTL drawing by the NYC draft board of names of men drafted under the 1862 Conscription Act- would've resulted in mobs of resentful poor whites attacking rich landed gentry & any blacks they saw ? What would've been the effect on the ACW of such disturbances, which southern cities would've been the most likely to have experienced such urban rioting as occurred in NY July 1863 ? How bout the prospects for Union subversion within this context, plus the poss class divide effects post-war ?
 
The areas in the south most strongly opposed to the CSA tended to be rural, made up mostly of small farmers on land not able to be used for large plantations.

Plus there just aren't that many large cities in the south at that time, not compared in size to NYC. Your best bets would probably be New Orleans, with its large Creole population anxious over its ambiguous middlling status facing a possible downward spiral, and San Antonio with its large pro Union German population.

BTW the CSA had a much higher desertion rate than the US. Often deserters would form guerilla bands. While some were just bandits, many joined with escaped slaves and Unionists and Indians. Some CSA deserters did more than rioted. They took up arms.
 
Is there any way that draft riots could've broken out in the CSA 1862-63 over the so-called '20 Nigger Law', based on the perception among poor whites of 'rich man's war, poor man's fight' ? What triggering factor- similar to the OTL drawing by the NYC draft board of names of men drafted under the 1862 Conscription Act- would've resulted in mobs of resentful poor whites attacking rich landed gentry & any blacks they saw ? What would've been the effect on the ACW of such disturbances, which southern cities would've been the most likely to have experienced such urban rioting as occurred in NY July 1863 ? How bout the prospects for Union subversion within this context, plus the poss class divide effects post-war ?


Sorry, what 20 nigger law? I tried googling the phrase, and couldn't wade through the dreck to any possible connexion...
 
Sorry, what 20 nigger law? I tried googling the phrase, and couldn't wade through the dreck to any possible connexion...

Dathi- have a look at this, mate- the Confederate Draft law of 1862:

http://www.etymonline.com/cw/conscript.htm
-extract:
The flaws of the Southern draft were functions of all conscripted armies and prevailed in the North as well as in Europe: overzealous draft officers; the host of exemptions, widely abused, however well regulated in theory; and the ease with which the richer class of men of military age avoided service.

Not surprisingly, the Rebel soldiers hated the Conscript Law. It was unfair, and they knew it. It took the glory out of the war, and the war was never the same for them. Sam R. Watkins, my second-favorite rebel, serving in the First Tennessee regiment under Braxton Bragg, had this to say about it:


"oldiers had enlisted for twelve months only, and had faithfully complied with their volunteer obligations; the terms for which they had enlisted had expired, and they naturally looked upon it that they had a right to go home. They had done their duty faithfully and well. They wanted to see their families; in fact, wanted to go home anyhow. War had become a reality; they were tired of it. A law had been passed by the Confederate States Congress called the conscript act. ... From this time on till the end of the war, a soldier was simply a machine, a conscript. It was mighty rough on rebels. We cursed the war, we cursed Bragg, we cursed the Southern Confederacy. All our pride and valor had gone, and we were sick of war and the Southern Confederacy.
"A law was made by the Confederate States Congress about this time allowing every person who owned twenty negroes to go home. It gave us the blues; we wanted twenty negroes. Negro property suddenly became very valuable, and there was raised the howl of 'rich man's war, poor man's fight.' The glory of the war, the glory of the South, the glory and pride of our volunteers had no charms for the conscript."[
 
@AmIndHistoryAuthor: New Orleans was occupied by the US very early in the war, so that place can't exactly rebel against the CSA anymore.
 
@AmIndHistoryAuthor: New Orleans was occupied by the US very early in the war, so that place can't exactly rebel against the CSA anymore.

Very early? It was in April 1862. You're right, though the time difference is not exactly much. That's a few weeks after the draft passes.

Though I wouldn't call the city occupied, only reunited with the US. It was legitimately part of the US, freed from the occupation of an insurgency.
 
Though I wouldn't call the city occupied, only reunited with the US. It was legitimately part of the US, freed from the occupation of an insurgency.

An insurgency with whom much of the population agreed. Butler passed laws saying women who spit on soldiers would be treated as prostitutes and even hanged a man for messing with the American flag.

To act as though Confederate cities were being held hostage by gangs of terrorists whom the population hated is inaccurate.
 
An insurgency with whom much of the population agreed. Butler passed laws saying women who spit on soldiers would be treated as prostitutes and even hanged a man for messing with the American flag.

To act as though Confederate cities were being held hostage by gangs of terrorists whom the population hated is inaccurate.

I always found that first part amusing: When a supposedly genteel southern "lady" acts crudely, you treat her like a crude woman. Is that not justice? Spitting on someone is committing assault, after all. The law actually was treating them more gently than they deserved.

I haven't seen a breakdown of how much of New Orleans favored the insurgency. But to pretend US troops were "occupying" is to buy into Redeemer mythology.

To also pretend that much of the CSA claimed territory was not resisting the insurgency is as false as can be. There were huge areas of the south that were pro Union, including much of Louisiana.

And frankly, so what if there was lots of secession sentiment? There's plenty of that in Texas going on today, but it doesn't mean the US is "occupying" Texas.

The fact is there were gangs of terrorists in New Orleans who had to resort to violence to drive away Unionists.This happened during Reconstruction and they (very tellingly) called themselves the White League.

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http://lsm.crt.state.la.us/cabildo/cab11.htm

[SIZE=+1]Opponents of Reconstruction[/SIZE]
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Several terrorist organizations sprang up in Louisiana during the Reconstruction era. They primarily aimed to intimidate Republican voters and officeholders of both races, obstruct implementation of Radical Republican policies, and restore Louisiana to rule by native whites.
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The main instruments of white terror in Louisiana were the Knights of the White Camellia, formed in 1868, and their successor group, the White League, which had spread across the state by 1874. The earliest of white supremacy groups was the Ku Klux Klan, formed in Tennessee in 1866, but evidence of the Klan's activity in Louisiana is scanty.
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The Lost Cause Worse Than Slavery
Thomas Nast
October 24, 1874
Reproduced from Harper's Weekly
The artist chides the White League and the Klan for creating conditions "worse than slavery" for freed blacks.
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Whites, many of them Democrats, joined these terrorist organizations when they began losing power to Radical Republicans, both white and black. The immediate goal of these groups was to keep white and black Republicans away from polling places. Their violent tactics, targeted at black leaders, escalated during Reconstruction. White mobs killed three state legislators during these turbulent times.
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[SIZE=+1]Colfax Riot[/SIZE]
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The Colfax Riot was the bloodiest single instance of racial violence in the Reconstruction era in all of the United States. Disputes over the 1872 election results had produced dual governments at all levels of politics in Louisiana. Fearful that local Democrats would seize power, former slaves under the command of black Civil War veterans and militia officers took over Colfax, the seat of Grant Parish, and a massacre ensued, including the slaughter of about fifty African Americans who had laid down their arms and surrendered.
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[SIZE=+1]Coushatta Massacre[/SIZE]
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White League influence spread to northwest Louisiana in the summer of 1873. Its brutal actions targeted whites as well as blacks. One such episode was directed against the family of carpetbagger policitian Marshall Harvey Twitchell. In 1874 the White League, who arrested and executed Twitchell's brother, two brothers-in-law, and three other white Republicans, while Twitchell was in New Orleans. Twitchell returned to Coushatta from New Orleans with two companies of federal troops, his goal to restore Republican rule in the parish. Democratic leaders continued to control local politics, however. In 1876 they assassinated Twitchell's brother-in-law, and tried to kill Twitchell, who lost both arms in the fray.
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Marshall Harvey Twitchell
c. 1890
Later, Twitchell was fitted with artificial arms.
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[SIZE=+1]First Battle of the Cabildo[/SIZE]
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The so-called First Battle of the Cabildo, fought on March 5, 1873, pitted Democrats who supported John McEnery against the Metropolitan Police of New Orleans, an integrated militia that protected the Republican administration under Governor William Pitt Kellogg. Both candidates had claimed victory in the 1872 election and established dual military forces and legislatures, resulting in a McEnery coup attempt directed at Metropolitan Police headquarters in the Cabildo. Kellogg and the Republicans maintained power, although their tenure was unstable throughout the remaining years of Reconstruction.
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Bloodshed at New Orleans--The Police Firing on the Militia and Rioters in Jackson Square
March 22, 1873
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper
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[SIZE=+1]Battle of Liberty Place[/SIZE]
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On September 14, 1874 the Metropolitan Police once again clashed with Democratic militia forces, now organized as the Crescent City White League, in a conflict known as the Battle of Liberty Place. This time the Metropolitan Police, numbering about 600, assisted by an additional 3,000 black militia, lost to the White Leaguers, who numbered about 8,400. Casualties included eleven killed and sixty wounded Metropolitans and sixteen killed and forty-five wounded White Leaguers. Today a controversial monument stands near the site of battle honoring White League members killed in the combat.
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General Battle Between the Metropolitan Police and Citizens at the Foot of Canal Street
September 23, 1874
Reproduced from the New York Daily Graphic
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President Ulysses S. Grant called in federal troops from Mississippi to restore Governor Kellogg to office. They helped maintain Kellogg in power until the end of Reconstruction.
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[SIZE=+1]Second Battle of the Cabildo[/SIZE]
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Tensions between Radicals and white supremacists climaxed after the disputed gubernatorial election in 1876, in which both Republican Stephen B. Packard and Democrat Francis T. Nicholls claimed a majority of votes and established separate governments, just as the 1872 candidates had done. In January 1877, on the morning after Nicholls's inauguration, he sent 3,000 men to take the Cabildo, seat of the Louisiana state supreme court and headquarters for the Metropolitan Police. Heavily outmanned, federal and Metropolitan forces offered no resistance. The supreme court justices gave up their courtroom, and Nicholls appointed a new judiciary.
 
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To also pretend that much of the CSA claimed territory was not resisting the insurgency is as false as can be. There were huge areas of the south that were pro Union, including much of Louisiana.

And frankly, so what if there was lots of secession sentiment? There's plenty of that in Texas going on today, but it doesn't mean the US is "occupying" Texas.

The fact is there were gangs of terrorists in New Orleans who had to resort to violence to drive away Unionists.This happened during Reconstruction and they (very tellingly) called themselves the White League.

1. East Tennessee, West Virginia, and (thanks to you) San Antonio I am aware of. Got any information re: Louisiana?

2. Do you really think a significant number of Texans seriously want to secede? It's political bombast.

3. That's over a decade after the period we're talking about.

You were making New Orleans sound like some city in non-Pashtun Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban--it's occupied by insurgents and the population is unhappy but under control.

You could make that argument with Knoxville or some other part of East Tennessee, but you'll need evidence to prove it was the same case in New Orleans.
 
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