Draft Riots and Resistance

[ErnieMac]

Schuylkill County (Pennsylvania) Draft Riots

This past week Pat Young posted two excellent threads concerning the July, 1863, New York City Draft Riots. In the course of researching information concerning the riots I began to realize the New York City was not alone and that some of the resistance in other locations involved violence. Rather than take away from Pat's New York posts I thought I'd start a new thread highlighting some of those other areas.

Hegins (pronounced Higgins), Pennsylvania, is a small community in Schuylkill County in the eastern part of the state. Most of its press these days involves an annual Labor Day pigeon shoot that has drawn the ire of animal rights activists. The town received a fare share of attention from Federal authorities in June of 1863. The following is a report made to U. S. Provost Marshal Colonel James B. Fry.

PROVOST MARSHAL'S OFFICE TENTH DISTRICT OF PA.
Pottsville, June 10, 1863.
Col. James B. Fry,
Provost Marshal General of the United States, Washington, D.C.

DEAR SIR:

On the 4th instant I had two instances of assault upon the enrolling officers within this district, one in sub-district No. 7, consisting of Schuylkill Township, and the other in sub-district No. 23, consisting of Hegins and Hubley Townships, both within Schuylkill County.

The assault in the district No. 7 was in the mining village of Newkirk, some fourteen miles east of this place. I send you copies of two letters relating to this, one from the enrolling officer, Jeremiah F. Werner, and the other from William K. Jones, who was with him at the time, and who is an intelligent and reliable citizen of Tamaqua. These will exhibit to you the character of the assault, and of the people also, who are to be enrolled here. I have not yet learned what was done by the four persons, or either of them, whom Mr. Jones names, nor who fired the revolver. I therefore have not yet taken steps to arrest anybody as concerned with that assauLieutenant The assault in sub-district No. 23 was in Hegins Township, among a farming population of Pennsylvania Germans, some twenty-two miles or thereabouts north of west from here. I send you herewith a copy of the affidavit of Peter W. Kutz, the enrolling officer, which will acquaint you with that case. I deemed it improper to let this instance of assault pass unnoticed. I therefore, upon this affidavit of Kutz, ordered my deputy, Uriah Gane, to arrest the three assailants. Abraham Bressler, Isreal Stutzman, and Christian Stutzman.

At 8 o'clock in the evening of Monday, the 8th instant, Deputy Gane, with the sergeant (William Parks) and three men of the guard and James Bowen, a special assistant, left here in two carriages to execute the order. They reached Bressler's house after midnight and posted themselves, as the deputy says, properly about the house. Bressler was at home, and a man who is represented to me as named Abraham Reed, and a hired man of Bressler's was also within. Bowen knows Bressler well, and tells me he is sure Bressler was within, because he heard and knows his voice.

Bressler refused to open the front door, where Gane and Bowen stood, and tried to escape by the back door. Sergeant Parks and one of the guards were at the back door. It was opened from within, and Bressler and Reed showed themselves there. Sergeant Parks at once laid hold of Bressler and said "you are my prisoner. I arrest you in the name of the provost marshall," and then shouted "Marshal! Marshal! Then one of the men inside called to the other for "the rifle." Bressler escaped from the sergeant's grasp and jumped back into the house, and Reed prevented the sergeant following by shutting the door, where I understand this happened. A person at the door was holding it to, and as the sergeant and men say, had a rifle in his hand, About the time Gane got there the door was opened, the sergeant had fired his revolver inside, and Gane saw a man disappear in the smoke within. He rushed in, seized the man and arrested him "in the name of the United States." It was dark. On procuring a light he discovered the man he had seized was not Bressler, but Reed, and he let him go and went on searching for Bressler. On going to an end window he found it open and a rifle standing beside it. This rifle he brought away, and it is now here very heavily loaded. The guard who had been posted ouside by that window, on the cry of "Marshal! Marshal! had left their position and so gave Bressler the chance which he used to escape. Gane afterward heard Bressler's wife tell her daughter, in German, that he was gone to Tremont, a small town about four miles south from there.

Our party being satisfied that Bressler was gone, went on and without any difficulty arrested the two Stutzmans.

On their way back, when coming up the mountain and about two miles and a half from Bressler's, at a sharp turn in the road, they met Bressler himself on horseback coming from Tremont. Isreal Stutzman, one of the arrested men, who was along, and is a neighbor of his, and was sitting alongside the driver of the foremost carriage, said it was Bressler. It was about 3 o'clock in the morning and cloudy. Gane jumped from his carriage window and all but caught him. Gane ran after him down the mountain, the guard following. Gane called him by name and told him to stop, and that he "had a warrant for him." Sergeant Parks ordered him four times to halt, and, as he did not halt, fired his revolver after him twice. They gained upon him as long as the road descended, which was over a quarter of a mile. But as soon as Bressler came to where the road was somewhat level, away he went beyond their reach and they stopped pursuing.

If our men had been mounted they could easily have captured him. Bressler was riding his brother's (Solomon Bressler) horse, and he seems thus to have gone to his brother's, who lives near him, and taken his brother's horse when he escaped, and gone to Tremont with it. Our men did not then go back to Bressler's house to take him, and I have not up to this time done anything further toward arresting him.

The two Stutzmans were brought to my quarters. I had a locomotive here with steam up ready to take them at once beyond the reach of habeas corpus from the bench here on the way to the U.S. marshal in Philadelphia. The principal man, however, was not brought in, and these two were not really of an offensive spirit at least, and censured instead of upholding Bressler's conduct toward the enrolling officer. I therefore bound them by their honor and in the sum of $4,000 each (ostensibly) to appear here whenever I want them and then let them go home. The man Reed was wounded in the arm; how badly I do not know. Sergeant Parks tells me that the man at the door dropped the rifle when he fired and was wounded in the arm. He also tells me that he himself would surely have been shot by the rifle if he had not fired as he did.

I certainly would have myself avoided wounding anybody or even discharging firearms at all, if I had been present and could have done so. Still the occasion may have justified all that was done, and I am disposed to believe that it did.

The effort made to arrest Bressler and the result, even with all the circumstances, I am satisfied will tend, and strongly too, to smooth the enroller's way hereafter in this country. The public already canvass the whole, and those who are loyal regard it as an earnest that the provost-marshal's work here is to be done, and all others manifest surprise.

The enrolling officer for that sub-district, Peter W. Kutz, was too much intimidated to go on with his work and resigned yesterday.

The Board immediately appointed another, Peter N. Snyder, in his place. The new enroller has gone today to begin, and with instructions to commence in the very Bressler neighborhood where the late assault was made, and to not desist until driven away by actual force, and if driven off, then to report immediately to me with all the facts.

Very respectfully,
yours,
C. TOWER,
Provost-Marshal

After the shooting incident and arrests the neighborhood quieted down. Bressler never was arrested.
http://www.pacivilwar.com/draftletter2.html
http://civilwar.gratzpa.org/2013/07/the-hegins-draft-riot/

 

[ErnieMac]

The Holmes County (Ohio) Draft Riots (Battle of Fort Fizzle).

The 1860 Census shows the State of Ohio as the third most populous state in the Union. Appropriately Ohio furnished the third most soldiers to the Union armies, distinguishing themselves in both the Eastern and Western theaters of the war. Ohio was also the home of Clement Vallandigham and a significant number of Peace Democrats who resisted the war on political grounds. The March 1863 Conscription Act coupled with Vallandigham's speeches and subsequent arrest on May 3, 1863, led to tensions in the areas dominated politically by those Peace Democrats. For the most part resistance was peaceful, but that changed in June, 1863, in rural Holmes County, Ohio.

On June 5th local inhabitants near the town of Napoleon (now Glenmont) attacked an enrollment officer named Elias Robinson and events escalated from there. A provost marshal squad commanded by Captain James Drake was sent to arrest the attackers, but before taking them away was confronted by 50 +/-armed men who released the prisoners. The situation did not go down well in Columbus and a force of 420 men (600 according to some sources) under command of Colonel William Wallace was sent to deal with the issue. In the meantime the local citizens had not been idle - they constructed a horseshoe shaped earthwork about a couple miles south of town manned with anywhere from 300 to 400 men (with some claims of 900 to 1000). Some sources indicate four pieces of artillery were mounted in the 'fort', others consider that unlikely.

Whatever the numbers and armament Colonel Wallace made short work of things. A brief confrontation occurred on June 17 with the rioters rapidly dispersing after two of their number were wounded. The following day a local Democratic politician named Daniel Leadbetter negotiated a resolution. In return for the departure of the troops the four men who assaulted Elias Robinson would surrender themselves to authorities. Later authorizes would round up and indict an additional 40 men for their participation in the affair. Only one, Lorenzo Blanchard, the owner of the land on which the 'fort' was built was convicted.

Officially referred to as the Holmes County Draft Riots, the rapid denouement of the affair took on an almost farcical appearance, especially as it was written up in a number of news articles of the time. It soon began to appearing under headings alluding to the Battle of Fort Fizzle under which it appears in internet searches today.
http://www.ohiocivilwarcentral.com/entry.php?rec=227&PHPSESSID=0068d44627ed900de9f492844b2f3a5a
http://www.tvcwrt.org/archives/
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~holder/holmes/holmescivwarprotestweb.htm
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=28525

The following is a newspaper article from the nearby Wooster Republican newspaper dated June 18, 1863.

The Holmes Co. War!

Three to Eight Hundred Copperheads in Arms!

Enroling[sic] Officer Resisted!

The Military Arrive and Copperhead Democrats Skedaddle.

Some two weeks ago, four or five copperhead Democrats resisted the enrolling officer in Richland tp., Holmes county, and stoned and drove him from the township, with the threat that they would kill him if he ever returned. The officer immediately reported to Captain Drake, the Provost Marshal, and on Friday last, Capt. Drake, J.A. Anderson, Deputy Marshal for the Northern District of Ohio, with four other men went to the township, and arrested four of the copperheads who drove off the enrolling officer. [Note: The Provost Marshal is the officer in the armed forces who is in charge of the military police.]​

As they were leaving with the prisoners they were suddenly surrounded by from 50 to 100 men armed with revolvers and rifles, and the prisoners were forcibly taken from the officers, with threats of instant death to any who interfered. Not content with thus imitating the great Rebellion, these Copperheads demanded the arms of the Provost Marshal and a pledge that he would never return to the township. They were told firmly that they had the power, by superior numbers, to take the life of the officers, but they could not have his arms or any promise that would interfere with his duty as a citizen or as an officer. The Marshal and his assistants were allowed to leave, and the prisoners were taken away by the Rebel Democrats. The villains were remonstrated with, and every means used to induce them to desist, but all to no purpose. The promise of a civil trial in Court by a Jury for the prisoners, was disregarded, and the leaders boasted that they were Secessionists, and were but carrying out the general plans of Copperhead Democrats all over the State.

Capt. Drake immediately reported to the Provost Marshal General at Columbus, and after giving the insurgents due time for reflection, a force of some 600 soldiers under Col. Wallace, was ordered to disperse the Copperheads and arrest the guilty for trial in the U.S. District Court. Meantime, the rebels had collected in force variously estimated at from two to twelve hundred, and were reported to be building a fort, and to be in possession of two or three pieces of artillery.

Col. Wallace, with his force, arrived at the "battle ground" yesterday evening, but found only squads of rebels, in all not amounting to over two or three hundred. At first they made a show of resistance, but when the troops came in sight, they fled to the hills and rocks in all directions. Some thirty or forty had been arrested up to late last evening, and the military had taken up permanent quarters to remain until the whole gang should be secured. We believe no lives were lost, and only one Copperhead is reported wounded.

To give these duped mad Copperheads every chance to escape death, Gov. Tod issued a Proclamation to be sent forward to them, under a flag of truce, before firing on them by the military, warning them to disperse and return to their friends and homes; but if they refused, then to show them no quarter whatever.

Various reports are still afloat in the region of the revolt, such as that they are to be reinforced to-day by a large force from Knox, Coshocton, and other counties, and then will give battle to the military, etc. etc. Of course no reliance can be placed in the hundred tales industriously circulated by excited people.

Some of the copperheads in Wooster, are circulating that the Republicans and Union men are engaged with Vallandigham copperheads in this infamous work of rebellion and resistance to the Government. It is an unblushing falsehood, and we challenge them to give the name of a single Union man or Republican, who is not violently opposed to every act of the kind. Republicans and Union men are not the men to even countenance such infamy without disproval[sic]. It is pre-eminently the business of Vallandigham Democrats to disobey the laws and resist the draft. Their leaders teach them to do so, and upon their leaders especially should punishment be visited as far as possible.​

 

[Pat Young]

Schuylkill County (Pennsylvania) Draft Riots

This past week Pat Young posted two excellent threads concerning the July, 1863, New York City Draft Riots. In the course of researching information concerning the riots I began to realize the New York City was not alone and that some of the resistance in other locations involved violence. Rather than take away from Pat's New York posts I thought I'd start a new thread highlighting some of those other areas.

Hegins (pronounced Higgins), Pennsylvania, is a small community in Schuylkill County in the eastern part of the state. Most of its press these days involves an annual Labor Day pigeon shoot that has drawn the ire of animal rights activists. The town received a fare share of attention from Federal authorities in June of 1863. The following is a report made to U. S. Provost Marshal Colonel James B. Fry.

PROVOST MARSHAL'S OFFICE TENTH DISTRICT OF PA.
Pottsville, June 10, 1863.
Col. James B. Fry,
Provost Marshal General of the United States, Washington, D.C.

DEAR SIR:

On the 4th instant I had two instances of assault upon the enrolling officers within this district, one in sub-district No. 7, consisting of Schuylkill Township, and the other in sub-district No. 23, consisting of Hegins and Hubley Townships, both within Schuylkill County.

The assault in the district No. 7 was in the mining village of Newkirk, some fourteen miles east of this place. I send you copies of two letters relating to this, one from the enrolling officer, Jeremiah F. Werner, and the other from William K. Jones, who was with him at the time, and who is an intelligent and reliable citizen of Tamaqua. These will exhibit to you the character of the assault, and of the people also, who are to be enrolled here. I have not yet learned what was done by the four persons, or either of them, whom Mr. Jones names, nor who fired the revolver. I therefore have not yet taken steps to arrest anybody as concerned with that assauLieutenant The assault in sub-district No. 23 was in Hegins Township, among a farming population of Pennsylvania Germans, some twenty-two miles or thereabouts north of west from here. I send you herewith a copy of the affidavit of Peter W. Kutz, the enrolling officer, which will acquaint you with that case. I deemed it improper to let this instance of assault pass unnoticed. I therefore, upon this affidavit of Kutz, ordered my deputy, Uriah Gane, to arrest the three assailants. Abraham Bressler, Isreal Stutzman, and Christian Stutzman.

At 8 o'clock in the evening of Monday, the 8th instant, Deputy Gane, with the sergeant (William Parks) and three men of the guard and James Bowen, a special assistant, left here in two carriages to execute the order. They reached Bressler's house after midnight and posted themselves, as the deputy says, properly about the house. Bressler was at home, and a man who is represented to me as named Abraham Reed, and a hired man of Bressler's was also within. Bowen knows Bressler well, and tells me he is sure Bressler was within, because he heard and knows his voice.

Bressler refused to open the front door, where Gane and Bowen stood, and tried to escape by the back door. Sergeant Parks and one of the guards were at the back door. It was opened from within, and Bressler and Reed showed themselves there. Sergeant Parks at once laid hold of Bressler and said "you are my prisoner. I arrest you in the name of the provost marshall," and then shouted "Marshal! Marshal! Then one of the men inside called to the other for "the rifle." Bressler escaped from the sergeant's grasp and jumped back into the house, and Reed prevented the sergeant following by shutting the door, where I understand this happened. A person at the door was holding it to, and as the sergeant and men say, had a rifle in his hand, About the time Gane got there the door was opened, the sergeant had fired his revolver inside, and Gane saw a man disappear in the smoke within. He rushed in, seized the man and arrested him "in the name of the United States." It was dark. On procuring a light he discovered the man he had seized was not Bressler, but Reed, and he let him go and went on searching for Bressler. On going to an end window he found it open and a rifle standing beside it. This rifle he brought away, and it is now here very heavily loaded. The guard who had been posted ouside by that window, on the cry of "Marshal! Marshal! had left their position and so gave Bressler the chance which he used to escape. Gane afterward heard Bressler's wife tell her daughter, in German, that he was gone to Tremont, a small town about four miles south from there.

Our party being satisfied that Bressler was gone, went on and without any difficulty arrested the two Stutzmans.

On their way back, when coming up the mountain and about two miles and a half from Bressler's, at a sharp turn in the road, they met Bressler himself on horseback coming from Tremont. Isreal Stutzman, one of the arrested men, who was along, and is a neighbor of his, and was sitting alongside the driver of the foremost carriage, said it was Bressler. It was about 3 o'clock in the morning and cloudy. Gane jumped from his carriage window and all but caught him. Gane ran after him down the mountain, the guard following. Gane called him by name and told him to stop, and that he "had a warrant for him." Sergeant Parks ordered him four times to halt, and, as he did not halt, fired his revolver after him twice. They gained upon him as long as the road descended, which was over a quarter of a mile. But as soon as Bressler came to where the road was somewhat level, away he went beyond their reach and they stopped pursuing.

If our men had been mounted they could easily have captured him. Bressler was riding his brother's (Solomon Bressler) horse, and he seems thus to have gone to his brother's, who lives near him, and taken his brother's horse when he escaped, and gone to Tremont with it. Our men did not then go back to Bressler's house to take him, and I have not up to this time done anything further toward arresting him.

The two Stutzmans were brought to my quarters. I had a locomotive here with steam up ready to take them at once beyond the reach of habeas corpus from the bench here on the way to the U.S. marshal in Philadelphia. The principal man, however, was not brought in, and these two were not really of an offensive spirit at least, and censured instead of upholding Bressler's conduct toward the enrolling officer. I therefore bound them by their honor and in the sum of $4,000 each (ostensibly) to appear here whenever I want them and then let them go home. The man Reed was wounded in the arm; how badly I do not know. Sergeant Parks tells me that the man at the door dropped the rifle when he fired and was wounded in the arm. He also tells me that he himself would surely have been shot by the rifle if he had not fired as he did.

I certainly would have myself avoided wounding anybody or even discharging firearms at all, if I had been present and could have done so. Still the occasion may have justified all that was done, and I am disposed to believe that it did.

The effort made to arrest Bressler and the result, even with all the circumstances, I am satisfied will tend, and strongly too, to smooth the enroller's way hereafter in this country. The public already canvass the whole, and those who are loyal regard it as an earnest that the provost-marshal's work here is to be done, and all others manifest surprise.

The enrolling officer for that sub-district, Peter W. Kutz, was too much intimidated to go on with his work and resigned yesterday.

The Board immediately appointed another, Peter N. Snyder, in his place. The new enroller has gone today to begin, and with instructions to commence in the very Bressler neighborhood where the late assault was made, and to not desist until driven away by actual force, and if driven off, then to report immediately to me with all the facts.

Very respectfully,
yours,
C. TOWER,
Provost-Marshal

After the shooting incident and arrests the neighborhood quieted down. Bressler never was arrested.
http://www.pacivilwar.com/draftletter2.html
http://civilwar.gratzpa.org/2013/07/the-hegins-draft-riot/

Thanks for the compliment. Here is the link to the thread "Was the NYC Draft Riot an Irish Riot/":

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/was-the-nyc-draft-riot-an-irish-riot.101563/

 

[Copperhead-mi]

The Holmes County (Ohio) Draft Riots (Battle of Fort Fizzle).

The 1860 Census shows the State of Ohio as the third most populous state in the Union. Appropriately Ohio furnished the third most soldiers to the Union armies, distinguishing themselves in both the Eastern and Western theaters of the war. Ohio was also the home of Clement Vallandigham and a significant number of Peace Democrats who resisted the war on political grounds. The March 1863 Conscription Act coupled with Vallandigham's speeches and subsequent arrest on May 3, 1863, led to tensions in the areas dominated politically by those Peace Democrats. For the most part resistance was peaceful, but that changed in June, 1863, in rural Holmes County, Ohio.<remainder snipped for brevity>

Samuel Medary, the obstreperous and influential editor of The Crisis, a widely circulated virulent, anti-Republican, copperhead newspaper, claimed partial responsibility for the victories of the Peace Democrats in the fall elections. During the 1862 Ohio state convention it was Medary who had called for the Mid-West states to form a separate Confederacy to reopen trade with the South. Following the passage of the March, 1863 Enrollment Act, Medary's editorials in The Crisis, along with Vallandigham's speeches and anti-draft editorials in other local newspapers, spurred readers and Peace Democrats to act resulting in the Holmes County draft riot. Over the next two years Ohio state troops would be used to quell a dozen draft riots throughout the state.

In Hartford City, Indiana, the county sheriff, Andrew Brickley, refused to supervise the draft proceeding being held October 9, 1863, and when it led to an argument with the two Federal officials present, the crowd attacked and destroyed the draft records and lottery wheel while causing the Feds to flee for their lives from the courthouse.

 

[KeyserSoze]

Conscription was not popular on either side. The North had the draft riots you mentioned, plus one in Wisconsin I believe. The South has whole counties rise up against Richmond. Makes the draft resistance during Vietnam look tame by comparison.

 

[leftyhunter]

Quite right conscription was not popular on either side. I would argue it was far less popular in the South where tens of thousands of Southern white men in response to conscription either joined the Union Army , fought has guerrillas or joined free lance deserter gangs. The books "The South bitterly Divided" and the "South Divided " go into more detail plus the regimental histories of such units has the 1st Ar and Al USV cav. My good friend CSA Today can supply a NY Times article published approx 20 years after the CW which counts maybe a few hundred Union men who deserted to the CSA.
Efforts by the Union to enroll local Mo men is some counties local militias where a disaster and many of these men fled Mo into Ark to join the CSA army or join various bushwacker gangs.An irony of the CW was men fleeing the Union draft from Mo fighting men from Ark who fled the CSA draft.
Leftyhunter

 

[ErnieMac]

Conscription was not popular on either side. The North had the draft riots you mentioned, plus one in Wisconsin I believe. The South has whole counties rise up against Richmond. Makes the draft resistance during Vietnam look tame by comparison.

I have some basic information on the Wisconsin riots that I plan to flesh out and post.

Quite right conscription was not popular on either side. I would argue it was far less popular in the South where tens of thousands of Southern white men in response to conscription either joined the Union Army , fought has guerrillas or joined free lance deserter gangs. The books "The South bitterly Divided" and the "South Divided " go into more detail plus the regimental histories of such units has the 1st Ar and Al USV cav. My good friend CSA Today can supply a NY Times article published approx 20 years after the CW which counts maybe a few hundred Union men who deserted to the CSA.
Efforts by the Union to enroll local Mo men is some counties local militias where a disaster and many of these men fled Mo into Ark to join the CSA army or join various bushwacker gangs.An irony of the CW was men fleeing the Union draft from Mo fighting men from Ark who fled the CSA draft.
Leftyhunter

I am aware of resistance in North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. If you have stories and details I'd like to see some of them.

 

[leftyhunter]

I have some basic information on the Wisconsin riots that I plan to flesh out and post.


I am aware of resistance in North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. If you have stories and details I'd like to see some of them.

Glad to. I would start with "Bitterly Divided the Souths inner civil war by Professor David Williams Valdosta State Univ Ga www.thewordpress 2008. In particular chapter 3 I can't of course give every example due to copy right laws but here are a few page 143 Daniel Ellis a member of "Heroes of America" a pro Unionist group guided over four thousand refugees from the South to Union lines in Tn. In Fentress County Tn David Beatty known has Tinker Dave fought a series of pitched battles with CSA units page 151. Page 153 The Union Navy formed the 2nd Fl Cav USV led by a CSA deserter that raided pro CSA slave owners and attacked railroads. Page 154 Joseph Sanders was a Sgt in the CSA deserted and became a Lt in the 1st Fl USV cav and led successfull raids against the CSA in Al. page 161 large groups of armed deserters in SW Va. Page 161 large bands of deserters in the hill country of Sc. Page 164 and 165 numerous examples of armed resistance in Ga by deserter gangs.
Daniel E. Sutherland professor of history Univ of Ark has published a book "Guerrillas, Unionists and violence on the Confederate Home Front by Univ of North Carolina Press. "A Savage Conflict" the decisive role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War Daniel Sutherland Univ of NC Press. Page 256 very serious anti confederate resistance along the St Johns River in Fl by CSA deserters supplied by the US Navy. Page 189 Gen. William Thomas head of the Thomas Legion complained that the western counties of Nc where about to be overrun by deserters.

Per Dyers Compendium Tn contributed the most Unionist soldiers and Wv contributed per recent scholarship about 20k men. Has mentioned there was plenty of Unionist guerrillas in TN and Nc .
I would argue that a few riots pales next to men willing to fight and die year after year against the CSA knowing if they are caught they will most likely die i.e. Ft Pillow. I will concede that Mo was a tough challenge for the Union has was the above locations for the CSA.
Leftyhunter

 

[KeyserSoze]

I am aware of resistance in North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. If you have stories and details I'd like to see some of them.

"The State of Jones" by Jenkins and Stauffer is a good source.

 

[Dave Wilma]

Novelist Charles Frazier used a lot of western North Carolina local lore and oral tradition along with historical evidence as the backdrop for his Cold Mountain. You had a Confederate veteran who discharged himself and had to make his way home ala Odysseus through drafters and Union and Confederate freebooters. Although a work of fiction, the story is authentic in capturing the Civil War on the Southern home front.

 

[ErnieMac]

The November, 1862, Wisconsin Draft Riots

Wisconsin started in the draft riot business early because of circumstances peculiar to that state. In the early days of the war volunteers swarmed to enlist. Wisconsin's regiments were some of the finest in the army. By the summer of 1862 enthusiasm had dwindled and Wisconsin had failed to reach its quota of volunteers in the July and August call-ups. Governor Edward Salomon decided to enact a draft in those counties that had not met their quota.

Areas of the state notably behind in meeting the quota goals were the eastern counties that were home to significant numbers of immigrants from southern German (primarily Catholic), Belgium and Luxembourg. Many of these people were recent immigrants who spoke little English and figured that as they were not citizens the war and the draft did not apply to them. The draft boards thought differently. In an effort to expand the draft pool the boards interpreted the documents the immigrants had signed claiming they intended to seek citizenship (which also entitled them to buy land) made the immigrants eligible. There were also questions concerning the fairness of the draft. In the Ozaukee County town of Port Washington it was rumored that draft commissioner William Pors, a German Protestant and Mason, was exempting Republicans and fellow Masons. In Door County, northeast of Green Bay, 43 of 60 men drafted were Belgian immigrants. Lists of those eligible for the draft were not posted, the way many found they were eligible was when their names were called as having been drafted.

The draft was scheduled to begin Monday, November 10, 1862, and continue until the quotas were met. Trouble broke out immediately in a number of locations. In Green Bay Belgian immigrants " Several hundred strong and armed with farm implements, guns or any weapon that came to hand they marched to Green Bay city, prepared to mob Senator T. O. Howe, who was on a visit home, and whom they held responsible in great measure for the hated conscription order. It is recalled that Senator Howe, pale as death, stood upon the upper piazza of his residence and addressed the malcontents, but the majority understood not a word of English and as the murmurs and execrations grew louder the senator withdrew by a side entrance and was driven rapidly away in a carriage. The mob hurried back to Baird's stone building on Pine street where the county offices were. Here they were met by the chairman of the county board, Hon. John Last, a graduate from a Brussels university and thoroughly conversant with the French language. He, assisted by O. J. B. Brice, dispersed the rioters and in the end persuaded many of them to submit to the draft. When they did go to the front the Belgians were considered among the bravest and best fighters to be found anywhere."

In Kewaunee County, to the east of Green Bay on Lake Michigan, "Draft Commissioner W.S. Finley announced a draft to meet the county's quota. By then the Belgians had had it and descended on Kewaunee armed with tree branches and pitchforks. They didn't sneak up on anybody and must have been an angry mob because Draft Commissioner Finley, who was in his store on the corner of today's Main and Ellis Streets, heard them coming. He must have known what the noise was and obviously thought the men meant business because he escaped from the store and ran the block to the harbor where he jumped on the steamer Comet which was about to cast off." Mrs. Finley remained in the store and provided the rioters with food, the effect of which was to calm them down and they dispersed shortly afterward. Finley, supported by a company of troops who happened to be from Kewaunee, was able to hold the draft at a later date and the troops got to spend Thanksgiving at home before heading to the front.

Additional outbreaks occurred across the state, but for the most part died out quickly. Milwaukee County, taking heed of rumors of violence, postponed its draft until security was ensured. The worst outbreak occurred in Port Washington in Ozaukee County just to the north of Milwaukee. William Pors, seemingly oblivious to what was going on around him, commenced the draft on the morning of November 10. "After setting up his equipment, Pors was beginning the draft when a cannon blast reverberated in the distance. Startled, the commissioner halted the lottery and looked through the sheets of rain. Voices in the distance grew louder as a group of angry farmers some 200 strong marched toward the courthouse. The banners reading 'No Draft!' made the reasons for their demonstration clear, and the clubs and bricks they carried made it clear they meant it. But Pors continued; if these people wanted to protest, he thought, they had that right. Pors drew a few more names until rocks, bricks, and shouts of 'No more draft!' fell on him along with the rain. The mob rushed the courthouse steps. Before Pors or any of his assistants could escape, the rioters overwhelmed them. Pors was beaten mercilessly, then thrown down the steps and into the street. The mob's ringleaders snatched the enrollment records and, despite the rain, set them ablaze. Other rioters, meanwhile, charged to the top of the courthouse and tore down the American flag."

Pors beat a hasty retreat to the local post office. He locked himself in while the rioters turned their attention to his home, the homes and businesses of local Republicans and, not surprisingly, the Masonic Hall. While the mob was otherwise engaged Pors got on a carriage driven by a friend and fled to Milwaukee where he sent word of the riot to Governor Salomon. The governor did not hesitate to respond, six companies of the 28th Wisconsin (about 600 men) under command of Colonel James Lewis were dispatched to Port Washington. Word was received on the 11th that the rioters had taken control of the town and had three artillery pieces aimed at the pier where they expected any troops being sent would land. Forewarned, the troops boarded the steamers Comet and Sunbeam in the predawn hours of November 12, landed south of Port Washington and surrounded the community.

Two companies "marching in from the rear advanced and soon met part of the unruly crowd. Taken by surprise, 50 rioters surrendered immediately while others retreated wildly to the other side of town. There, they ran head-on into another advancing line of soldiers. The armed men gradually surrounded the rioters. 'They were found in cellars, bars, saloons, and in bed, and in every conceivable hiding place,' one soldier said. 'One was even found four feet deep buried in hay, and he would not come out until he was persuaded by a bayonet'." Over 150 rioters were captured. The following day their cases were reviewed by a provost marshal's court and 82 convicted and imprisoned in Fort Washburn in Milwaukee.
Subsequently arrests raised the number of prisoned to 126 and the lot of them was moved to Fort Randall in the state capital of Madison. "A soldier stationed there described the conditions the prisoners faced. They were 'closely confined in a single room, or board shanty, about 30 feet wide and 50 feet in length,' he wrote. 'There was one stove in the room, but no bedding, not even straw to lie upon. The prisoners were not permitted to leave the shed under any pretense whatever'." The prisoners would remain in Fort Randall for almost a year before being released.

http://genealogytrails.com/wis/brown/history_browncoincivilwar.htm
http://kewauneecountyhistory.blogspot.com/2013/11/thanksgiving-1862-riot-in-kewaunee.html
http://thecivilwarandnorthwestwisco...2-october-29-draft-to-take-place-november-10/
http://www.historynet.com/american-civil-war-no-draft.htm

 

[ErnieMac]

Resistance in Arkansas (Skirmish at McGraw's Mill)
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=6400
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=6691
http://peace.saumag.edu/swark/articles/ahq/southwest_arkansas/disloyalty/disloyalty233.html

In 1860 the Ouachita Mountain area of southwest Arkansas was one of the faster developing areas of the state. The native Quapaw had not ceded their lands until the mid-1820s so the area had not developed commercially as rapidly as other portions of Arkansas. The Ouachita, Saline and Red River valleys supported a growing plantation economy. The mountains between those valleys were not as fertile, but were able to support subsistence agricultural and livestock. Going into the Secession Crisis and early days of the War the area was fairly unified and strongly supported the Confederate cause as enlistment records in the area show.

A year-and-a-half (late 1862) later conditions were different. The military situation had deteriorated. Morale was low, which was reflected in high desertion rates. The Arkansas portion Mississippi River Valley was dominated by the Federal navy and Union troops stationed at key points. Thomas Hindman's Confederate forces had recently fought a Union army to a standstill at Prairie Grove, but lack of supplies led to their withdrawal south of the Arkansas River. Hindman was relieved of command at his own request and replaced by Major General T. H. Holmes. Holmes' initial report on his new command highlighted some reasons for the unrest. A drought the previous summer resulted in food shortages. In addition steady inflation combined with the lack of pay and supplies for Confederate troops meant that poorer troops and civilians were scrambling to survive.

The final straw for many was the 1862 Confederate Conscription Act. As initially passed on April 16, 1862, it required the service of men between the ages of 18 – 35 and extended the enlistments of men already serving from one to three years. Men of sufficient wealth could purchase the service of a substitute who would not otherwise be required to serve. The act was extremely unpopular both from the stand point of required vs. volunteer service and the substitute provision. Those who were completing 12 months of volunteer service and were looking forward to going home were severly disappointed. As Sam Watkins (Company Aytch) would write: "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." In October, 1862, the Twenty Negro Law, exempting wealthy slave owners or overseers from service if they owned more than 20 slaves on a plantation was passed. This convinced many that it was a rich man's war, but a poor man's fight.

Resistance began to peak in the winter of 1862 - 1863. Potential conscripts proved unruly and unwilling. "That something was wrong in the southwest came to light initially with reports of at least one mutiny by conscripts who had been ordered to report for duty. At the conscript camp at Magnolia in Columbia County, conscripts made a public demonstration of their intention to resist the conscript law. Ordered to report, many of those who arrived at the camp decided not to submit to the law. On January 6, 1863, led by a Parson Butler, some forty or fifty persons "young & old" formed on the parade ground to show their intention to resist conscription then walked out of camp. …. Other groups demonstrated open hostility to Confederate authorities. They armed themselves and carried on actual warfare against both civilians and the military. Locals concluded that many of this sort were actually deserters from the Confederate Army. One observer contended bad food, exposure, hard duty, and news of the destitution of their families made them natural recruits to dissident groups."

Confederate deserters, Union sympathizers and potential conscripts began to organize in mountain hideouts. "Thus they slipped away from the army, sometimes in whole squads. In Pike County a Captain Greer, alleged to have been a captain of a company in the Confederate Army from Jefferson County who failed to pass his examinations, led one such band. When he deserted he took many of his men with him, and they established themselves at "Greasy Cove," a mountain pass at the head of the Little Missouri River. From there they raided the nearby neighborhoods and challenged Confederate authorities to dislodge them. The Greer band included more, however, than deserters. The Washington Telegraph described it as consisting of "deserters, disaffected persons, and turbulent characters." Unable to obtain food and other supplies the men did what they thought they had to do, take them from the neighboring landowners.

The Ouachita Mountains provided a natural haven for such men. One such band, commanded by a man named Captain Andy Brown, was composed of 83 members who had established themselves near McGraw's Mill on the Walnut Fork of the Ouachita River. They survived by stealing food, horses and other supplies from nearby farms. The civilians, naturally, urged the Confederate government to act. Homeguard units under command of Lieutenant Colonel William Crawford (Clark County) and Major James Woosley (Sevier County) headed into the mountains.

"The Homeguard attacked Brown's force early on the morning of February 15, 1863. Outnumbered, the Unionists assumed a defensive position that required the Confederates to attack uphill on foot. The steep terrain forced the Homeguard to dismount from their horses and engage the Unionists. This maneuver reduced the number of men available to engage Brown's band, as every fourth man was required to hold the horses. Even with this reduction in numbers, the Confederates still enjoyed a more than two-to-one advantage. The Unionists were slowly forced to retreat, and after several hours of battle, Brown and twenty-seven of his men fled the field, pursued by members of the Homeguard. The Homeguard gave up the chase ten miles below Mount Ida (Montgomery County), when the Unionists crossed the swollen Ouachita River."

The Homeguard reported one dead and five wounded while killing 11, wounding 24 and capturing 20 of Brown's men. Brown would claim only two of his men dead and four wounded, while inflicting casualties of 16 killed and 12 wounded on the Confederate attackers. Whatever the casualties Brown's men retreated from the area into Union held territory in the northwest. A number enrolled in the Union's 1st Arkansas Infantry Regiment being formed in Fayetteville. Except for Steele's Camden Expedition in April, 1864, the Confederates held southwest Arkansas for the balance of war. The other side of that coin was that Arkansas provided more Union troops than any other Confederate state except Tennessee.

 

[leftyhunter]

Resistance in Arkansas (Skirmish at McGraw's Mill)
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=6400
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=6691
http://peace.saumag.edu/swark/articles/ahq/southwest_arkansas/disloyalty/disloyalty233.html

In 1860 the Ouachita Mountain area of southwest Arkansas was one of the faster developing areas of the state. The native Quapaw had not ceded their lands until the mid-1820s so the area had not developed commercially as rapidly as other portions of Arkansas. The Ouachita, Saline and Red River valleys supported a growing plantation economy. The mountains between those valleys were not as fertile, but were able to support subsistence agricultural and livestock. Going into the Secession Crisis and early days of the War the area was fairly unified and strongly supported the Confederate cause as enlistment records in the area show.

A year-and-a-half (late 1862) later conditions were different. The military situation had deteriorated. Morale was low, which was reflected in high desertion rates. The Arkansas portion Mississippi River Valley was dominated by the Federal navy and Union troops stationed at key points. Thomas Hindman's Confederate forces had recently fought a Union army to a standstill at Prairie Grove, but lack of supplies led to their withdrawal south of the Arkansas River. Hindman was relieved of command at his own request and replaced by Major General T. H. Holmes. Holmes' initial report on his new command highlighted some reasons for the unrest. A drought the previous summer resulted in food shortages. In addition steady inflation combined with the lack of pay and supplies for Confederate troops meant that poorer troops and civilians were scrambling to survive.

The final straw for many was the 1862 Confederate Conscription Act. As initially passed on April 16, 1862, it required the service of men between the ages of 18 – 35 and extended the enlistments of men already serving from one to three years. Men of sufficient wealth could purchase the service of a substitute who would not otherwise be required to serve. The act was extremely unpopular both from the stand point of required vs. volunteer service and the substitute provision. Those who were completing 12 months of volunteer service and were looking forward to going home were severly disappointed. As Sam Watkins (Company Aytch) would write: "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." In October, 1862, the Twenty Negro Law, exempting wealthy slave owners or overseers from service if they owned more than 20 slaves on a plantation was passed. This convinced many that it was a rich man's war, but a poor man's fight.

Resistance began to peak in the winter of 1862 - 1863. Potential conscripts proved unruly and unwilling. "That something was wrong in the southwest came to light initially with reports of at least one mutiny by conscripts who had been ordered to report for duty. At the conscript camp at Magnolia in Columbia County, conscripts made a public demonstration of their intention to resist the conscript law. Ordered to report, many of those who arrived at the camp decided not to submit to the law. On January 6, 1863, led by a Parson Butler, some forty or fifty persons "young & old" formed on the parade ground to show their intention to resist conscription then walked out of camp. …. Other groups demonstrated open hostility to Confederate authorities. They armed themselves and carried on actual warfare against both civilians and the military. Locals concluded that many of this sort were actually deserters from the Confederate Army. One observer contended bad food, exposure, hard duty, and news of the destitution of their families made them natural recruits to dissident groups."

Confederate deserters, Union sympathizers and potential conscripts began to organize in mountain hideouts. "Thus they slipped away from the army, sometimes in whole squads. In Pike County a Captain Greer, alleged to have been a captain of a company in the Confederate Army from Jefferson County who failed to pass his examinations, led one such band. When he deserted he took many of his men with him, and they established themselves at "Greasy Cove," a mountain pass at the head of the Little Missouri River. From there they raided the nearby neighborhoods and challenged Confederate authorities to dislodge them. The Greer band included more, however, than deserters. The Washington Telegraph described it as consisting of "deserters, disaffected persons, and turbulent characters." Unable to obtain food and other supplies the men did what they thought they had to do, take them from the neighboring landowners.

The Ouachita Mountains provided a natural haven for such men. One such band, commanded by a man named Captain Andy Brown, was composed of 83 members who had established themselves near McGraw's Mill on the Walnut Fork of the Ouachita River. They survived by stealing food, horses and other supplies from nearby farms. The civilians, naturally, urged the Confederate government to act. Homeguard units under command of Lieutenant Colonel William Crawford (Clark County) and Major James Woosley (Sevier County) headed into the mountains.

"The Homeguard attacked Brown's force early on the morning of February 15, 1863. Outnumbered, the Unionists assumed a defensive position that required the Confederates to attack uphill on foot. The steep terrain forced the Homeguard to dismount from their horses and engage the Unionists. This maneuver reduced the number of men available to engage Brown's band, as every fourth man was required to hold the horses. Even with this reduction in numbers, the Confederates still enjoyed a more than two-to-one advantage. The Unionists were slowly forced to retreat, and after several hours of battle, Brown and twenty-seven of his men fled the field, pursued by members of the Homeguard. The Homeguard gave up the chase ten miles below Mount Ida (Montgomery County), when the Unionists crossed the swollen Ouachita River."

The Homeguard reported one dead and five wounded while killing 11, wounding 24 and capturing 20 of Brown's men. Brown would claim only two of his men dead and four wounded, while inflicting casualties of 16 killed and 12 wounded on the Confederate attackers. Whatever the casualties Brown's men retreated from the area into Union held territory in the northwest. A number enrolled in the Union's 1st Arkansas Infantry Regiment being formed in Fayetteville. Except for Steele's Camden Expedition in April, 1864, the Confederates held southwest Arkansas for the balance of war. The other side of that coin was that Arkansas provided more Union troops than any other Confederate state except Tennessee.

Good research. On a similar note Gen. Sherman's color guard in his march through Ga was the 1st Al USV Cav which also contained more then a few CSA deserters. To be fair to both sides Ky was similar to Mo in that many Kentuckians fought in the CSA Army ( the Orphan Brigade being the most famous) and has CSA insurgents. Many men from Md fought in the CSA Army but I am not aware of them fighting has guerrillas . Unlike the Southerners who deserted to fight the CSA has guerrillas I am not aware of Union soldiers doing thew same in any significant number. Both Mosby and Quantrill had at least one Union deserter but I have not read of any others. I am aware of at least one draft officer murdered in In there may have been more.
On the whole Union deserters did not take up arms against the Union Army (the Paw Paw Militia of Mo being a partial exception) vs many CSA deserters that did. I am not aware of anti conscription riots in the South vs major ones in the North 1.e. NYC and Boston. On the other hand once the riot was quelled the rioters did not take up arms against the Union vs those in the South who took up arms against the CSA.
Leftyhunter

 

[ErnieMac]

Rutland (Vermont) Draft Riots
http://vermonthistory.org/journal/cw/FrederickHolbrook_v32.pdf
http://digital.vpr.net/post/150th-anniversary-draft-riots-west-rutland
http://www.eastconn.org/tah/1112SG3_1863DraftRiotLesson.pdf

For the first ninety years of its existence Rutland, Vermont, was a quiet agricultural community. It had been settled by farmers and tradesman from Connecticut and Massachusetts whose descendants still provided most of the population of the town. Since the late 1700s the townspeople were aware of small marble outcroppings that were exploited as needed for tombstones. By the 1830s the marble deposits were recognized as being much more extensive than originally thought and of a color and quality desirable for use in public structures.

Marble quarrying, however, was a demanding, labor intensive work that did not hold much appeal to the local inhabitants. The geology of the region meant quarrying was carried out in pits below ground level. Transporting the finished slabs by horse and wagon posed another problem. The solution to these issues arrived in the early 1850s with the railroads. Much of the labor for the United States' transportation infrastructure in the 1840s and 1850s was performed by Irish immigrants as unskilled, heavy manual labor was all many of them could find. The Vermont railroads were no exception. The flourishing of the marble quarries shortly after the arrival of the railroads provided opportunities that many Irish took. By the outbreak of the Civil War hundreds of them had settled permanently in the Rutland area.

Vermont's Civil War experiences were not much different than most other Northern states. An initial burst of patriotic enthusiasm as thousands rallied to the cause was followed by disillusionment as the war dragged on and the casualties mounted. The 1863 Conscription Act was no more popular than it was in other locations and the trouble started early. Unlike rioters in other states who waited until draft, some of the marble quarrymen acted preemptively by refusing to give information about their status to the enrollment officers and refused to sign enrollment documents. The enrolling officers reported back to the district provost marshal, Captain Cyrus Crane.

Captain Cyrus R. Crane

Captain Crane was a veteran of the 5th Vermont Infantry who had been wounded at Antietam and received a medical discharge because of those wounds. He was not about to back down. On June 16, 1863, Crane gave orders for deputies to arrest one Jerry Connell, a blacksmith at the Adam and Allen Marble Quarry in Rutland. The deputies arrived at the quarry, but Connell's coworkers refused to let the deputies take him. The following day Crane himself led a half dozen or so men back to the quarry where they were surrounded and attacked by a large group of quarrymen (estimates vary from 200 – 500) who pelted them with marble chips. An enraged Crane emptied his pistol before being dragged away by his deputies. There are no reports of casualties.

Reports of the incident varied. The Montpelier Daily Freeman of June 20 reported "There has been a slight flurry at West Rutland, caused by an attempt to enroll the Irishmen working in the marble quarries. Stones were quite freely thrown, and the officer had to make use of his revolver. An attempt to resist the enrollment act in Vermont will most likely turn out a harder task than quarrying marble." William Ripley, a Rutland resident wrote a letter to Brigadier General George Stannard, who would shortly command a Vermont Brigade at Gettysburg, as follows:

Center Rutland
June 18, 1863

Dear Gen. Stannard:
Our friend Captain Crane has fought and lost his first battle. On the quarries there are about 6 or 7 hundred men who have organized to resist the draft. They now refuse to give the enrolling officer their names. Yesterday Crane went over personally to get the names and ages of these men and was attacked by them with stones and driven off. The official list of killed and wounded has not yet been published though loss of material is confined, so far as known, to the hat of the enrolling officer. Crane has gone to Montpelier today to consult with Gen'!. Pitcher and surely [will] come back and take the names of the Irishmen. I fully expect that we shall have a little fight here.

Crane is said to have behaved well over there. He tried hard to shoot the ringleader, but was overpowered and carried off by his own posse, after having emptied his revolver. His blood is fully up and he is bound to put this thing through.​

Truly yours,
Wm. V. W. Ripley
​

As noted Captain Crane reported to his superior, Vermont Provost Marshal Thomas Pitcher, that same day who in return reported to U.S. Provost Marshal Colonel James Fry. Pitcher indicated that 500 Irish laborers in the marble quarries attacked Crane and the district surgeon, enrolling officer and deputy county sheriff as well. The laborers were reported to be well organized, armed and capable of raising 1000 men. Pitcher indicated that there was no military force in the state available to handle the situation. Fry replied the same day with calming advice. He noted that no troops were available at present to send to Vermont, that Pitcher should use the quarry owner's employment records to complete the draft enrollment forms and to make use of the newly formed Invalid Corps if needed.

Cooler heads did prevail, no further violence was reported. In early July, as the Battle of Gettysburg raged and the draft day approached, Fry told Pitcher that Federal troops were not available if there were trouble. Pitcher should concentrate such troops as he had at his disposal in the "disaffected district". Fry agreed and stated he expected "no serious resistance to the draft in any part of the state, except Rutland and vicinity, amongst the Irish laborers in the marble quarries." The draft was held on July 22, 1863, without violence, and 263 names were selected, all of which were published in the Rutland Herald the following day. 76 of the names appear to have been Irish.

One final hurdle remained. Section 12 of the Enrollment Act required that drafted men be personally notified of their selection within 10 days following the draft. Two hundred soldiers were dispatched to Rutland to assist delivery of draft notices. The soldiers arrived at the quarries and promptly pulled the access ladder out of the pits. The draft notices were served to the affected quarryman while their irate co-workers remained below. There was no further violence.