Story of the Donner Brigade
Several men from the Donner Brigade in Northern Alabama on an anti-partisan sweep, circa 1943.
In early 1940, the Confederate Department of Justice got a phone call from Attorney Koenig's office informing them that President Featherston had decided to give "suspended sentences to so-called "honorable poachers" and, depending on their behavior on the front, to pardon them." The order would specify state that they should not be of crimes involving trap setting, and to be enrolled in the marksmen rifle corps. Their commander was a man by the name of Hugh Donner, a Freedom Party member who had a history of being very violent which included raping adolescent girls and by all accounts, was a sadist.
A photo of Standard Leader Hugh Donner, circa 1941. Donner had served in the Army of Tennessee as an infantryman during the First Great War and had fought against the Negro Marxist Revolutionaries in Alabama. He would join the Freedom Party in 1921 and would also work at a bank and a knitwear factory. He was convicted in 1934 after raping a 14 year old office girl and stealing government property. The party would expel him and was forced to reapply for membership. After serving a 2 year sentence, Donner was released, but was incarcerated yet again for rape. In 1938, he would join the Freedom Party Guards in the Security Department and from there, would become the leader of a special unit.
The emblem of the Donner Brigade aka the 36th Special Security Division. The emblem featured a Griswold revolver, a broken sabre, and a deathshead symbol. The Union Army and the Negro Partisans would refer to this unit as the Head Hunters as a reference to both the men's criminal history and to their emblem.
In late 1940, the unit would be readied for their first anti-partisan sweep in South Carolina with Assault Band Leader Donner under his command with 300 men (who were all selected due to their disciplinary and criminal records). In the month of October alone, the Donner Brigade would kill a total of 74 Negro Partisans (51 were killed in firefights while all of the others were brutally executed by the men of the Brigade.) According to the author Matthew Cooper, "Wherever the Donner unit operated, murder and rape formed an everyday part of life and indiscriminate slaughter, beatings, and looting were rife." In June of 1941 alone, the unit would murder 4,000 Negroes in the Anderson Ghetto and 316 partisans and a further 700 labeled as "fugitive Negroes." In September of 1941, the unit was authorized to be expanded to a regiment sized unit, with new recruits being enlisted from the criminal underclass and military delinquents.
A member of the Donner Regiment in his camouflage uniform with a Colt M42 that he picked up off a dead partisan, circa 1942.
Throughout 1942 and most of 1943, the Regiment would operate throughout the Black Belt regions of the Confederacy, doing anti-partisan operations within the regions. But by late 1943 as the war situation grew dire for the CSA, the unit, now a division, was committed to the frontlines against the invading Union Army. There, they would prove to as atrocious to captured Union soldiers as to the African-Confederate population. The most notable example was the Scottsboro Massacre, where the men of the Donner Division executed 140 captured Union Soldiers (most of whom were whites) in a very brutal manner. During a skirmish near the town of Wattsville outside of Birmingham, Donner was seriously wounded and was sent to the rear. Replacing him was Chief Assault Leader Samuel Wellington, who tried to reorganize the battered unit, but unfortunately, with Donner gone, many of the men would desert from the division. By June 2nd, 1944, he realized that his unit virtually ceased to exist and so, would resign from his post. The remnants of the 36th Division would eventually be wiped out during the fighting in Birmingham by June 22nd. In August 2nd, 1944, Donner would be captured by the Union Army while attempting to flee to Mexico at the city of Shreveport in Louisiana, and he had died at their hands by August 8th, he was lynched by a group of blacks who happened to recognize him. Allegedly, the soldiers who were guarding him had helped them execute Donner.
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I bet all of you reading this knows what OTL Group that I am basing this off of.
Several men from the Donner Brigade in Northern Alabama on an anti-partisan sweep, circa 1943.
In early 1940, the Confederate Department of Justice got a phone call from Attorney Koenig's office informing them that President Featherston had decided to give "suspended sentences to so-called "honorable poachers" and, depending on their behavior on the front, to pardon them." The order would specify state that they should not be of crimes involving trap setting, and to be enrolled in the marksmen rifle corps. Their commander was a man by the name of Hugh Donner, a Freedom Party member who had a history of being very violent which included raping adolescent girls and by all accounts, was a sadist.
A photo of Standard Leader Hugh Donner, circa 1941. Donner had served in the Army of Tennessee as an infantryman during the First Great War and had fought against the Negro Marxist Revolutionaries in Alabama. He would join the Freedom Party in 1921 and would also work at a bank and a knitwear factory. He was convicted in 1934 after raping a 14 year old office girl and stealing government property. The party would expel him and was forced to reapply for membership. After serving a 2 year sentence, Donner was released, but was incarcerated yet again for rape. In 1938, he would join the Freedom Party Guards in the Security Department and from there, would become the leader of a special unit.
The emblem of the Donner Brigade aka the 36th Special Security Division. The emblem featured a Griswold revolver, a broken sabre, and a deathshead symbol. The Union Army and the Negro Partisans would refer to this unit as the Head Hunters as a reference to both the men's criminal history and to their emblem.
In late 1940, the unit would be readied for their first anti-partisan sweep in South Carolina with Assault Band Leader Donner under his command with 300 men (who were all selected due to their disciplinary and criminal records). In the month of October alone, the Donner Brigade would kill a total of 74 Negro Partisans (51 were killed in firefights while all of the others were brutally executed by the men of the Brigade.) According to the author Matthew Cooper, "Wherever the Donner unit operated, murder and rape formed an everyday part of life and indiscriminate slaughter, beatings, and looting were rife." In June of 1941 alone, the unit would murder 4,000 Negroes in the Anderson Ghetto and 316 partisans and a further 700 labeled as "fugitive Negroes." In September of 1941, the unit was authorized to be expanded to a regiment sized unit, with new recruits being enlisted from the criminal underclass and military delinquents.
A member of the Donner Regiment in his camouflage uniform with a Colt M42 that he picked up off a dead partisan, circa 1942.
Throughout 1942 and most of 1943, the Regiment would operate throughout the Black Belt regions of the Confederacy, doing anti-partisan operations within the regions. But by late 1943 as the war situation grew dire for the CSA, the unit, now a division, was committed to the frontlines against the invading Union Army. There, they would prove to as atrocious to captured Union soldiers as to the African-Confederate population. The most notable example was the Scottsboro Massacre, where the men of the Donner Division executed 140 captured Union Soldiers (most of whom were whites) in a very brutal manner. During a skirmish near the town of Wattsville outside of Birmingham, Donner was seriously wounded and was sent to the rear. Replacing him was Chief Assault Leader Samuel Wellington, who tried to reorganize the battered unit, but unfortunately, with Donner gone, many of the men would desert from the division. By June 2nd, 1944, he realized that his unit virtually ceased to exist and so, would resign from his post. The remnants of the 36th Division would eventually be wiped out during the fighting in Birmingham by June 22nd. In August 2nd, 1944, Donner would be captured by the Union Army while attempting to flee to Mexico at the city of Shreveport in Louisiana, and he had died at their hands by August 8th, he was lynched by a group of blacks who happened to recognize him. Allegedly, the soldiers who were guarding him had helped them execute Donner.
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I bet all of you reading this knows what OTL Group that I am basing this off of.
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