How was your life when disagreeing with your environment?

Piedone

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Joined
Oct 8, 2020
In another thread appeared how supporters of the Union were badly treated in the South.
Well...of course I saw the movie "Freestate of Jones" and know something about single excesses but I don´t have really an overview about that occurences and how widespread they were.

Hence my question: How fared confederate sympathizers in the North respectively Unionists in the South?
Please...I am not pursuing the idea of a contest about who was nicer to dissidents, South or North.
I am just asking generally to get more inside into that subject.
 
In the border States the eye-foe-eye was a rule of thumb. Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, on into Kansas and Indian Territory the aggression was only worsened by continual comeuppance.
Tennessee was also saturated with blood and violence, seeping down into North Carolina and Alabama. I don't find many instances in Georgia, or Mississippi. Arkansas across the river was fully steeped in the violence of aggression.
I suppose the Ohio, and Indiana and across that meridian was less penetrated by southerners. The popularity as Unionists stamped out all southern newspapers pretty quickly. Generally the aggression had a tendency to flow southward, and not north, but instance remain where conspirators hatched plots against the public domain.
Lubliner.
 
I have to agree with Lubliner, the border states had terrible violence carried out against citizensagainst citizens, truly a civil war, not civil at all.
Don't forget things were so bad within Virginia that a large portion seceded and became West Virginia, and it was not an amicable separation.
In the Northern states there may have been Copperheads agitating but they did not rise to the level of violence visited upon western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee and throughout the South.
One thing that is seldom mentioned however was the incredibly active horse and cattle rustling industry carried out in Kansas, and Iowa and the Nebraska Territory and throughout Indiana, Illinois etc. In Texas and elsewhere with the high demand by government purchasing agents for livestock and with most of the men of fighting age gone, Sheriffs and Marshals had their hands full.
 
I have to agree with Lubliner, the border states had terrible violence carried out against citizensagainst citizens, truly a civil war, not civil at all.
Don't forget things were so bad within Virginia that a large portion seceded and became West Virginia, and it was not an amicable separation.
In the Northern states there may have been Copperheads agitating but they did not rise to the level of violence visited upon western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee and throughout the South.
One thing that is seldom mentioned however was the incredibly active horse and cattle rustling industry carried out in Kansas, and Iowa and the Nebraska Territory and throughout Indiana, Illinois etc. In Texas and elsewhere with the high demand by government purchasing agents for livestock and with most of the men of fighting age gone, Sheriffs and Marshals had their hands full.
Kentucky and Tennessee are good examples of horse and cattle confiscation by both sides. Before the December 15th battle of Nashville, the troops on both sides were sent out to bring in as many horses as they could gather. Many reports say the rebels beat the yankees to the farms and cleared them out one step ahead. The year before, in 1863, the same incidents with Rosecrans and Bragg. Some farmers or ranchers were given vouchers for the impressment, while those that opposed the oppressors were given nothing.
Lubliner.
 
The midwest (largely) was home to the Knights of the Golden Circle and the Sons of Liberty--secret societies of Copperheads; in Indianapolis, SOL leaders were tried for treason (they were convicted but that conviction was later overturned).

In Maine it was hard to tell the difference among Copperheads, peace-at-any-price activists and anti-draft advocates. There was a great deal of debating on the issue of peace (and commerce) vs. abolition and I should think that this occurred in many Union states. The woods of the Maine county of Aroostook (way up in the north) were filled with "Skedaddlers" (some Copperheads but mostly those fleeing the draft).

As far as I have found, violence--and treats of violence--came from Southern sympathizers and not the other way around. Copperheads threatened to burn the city of Camden and, in the town of Rockport, the coast guard was called out in the face of potential violence (although it can be argued that this potential came mainly from anti-drafters).
 
In another thread appeared how supporters of the Union were badly treated in the South.
Well...of course I saw the movie "Freestate of Jones" and know something about single excesses but I don´t have really an overview about that occurences and how widespread they were.

Hence my question: How fared confederate sympathizers in the North respectively Unionists in the South?
Please...I am not pursuing the idea of a contest about who was nicer to dissidents, South or North.
I am just asking generally to get more inside into that subject.
It would depend on some extent the dissidents, if they took up arms, obviously that's going to draw unfavorable treatment.

My state was probably as divided, and as bitterly as any. But think if a community actually remained neutral, it was largely left alone. Bethel and Hermann come to mind.
 
I have to agree with Lubliner, the border states had terrible violence carried out against citizensagainst citizens, truly a civil war, not civil at all.
Don't forget things were so bad within Virginia that a large portion seceded and became West Virginia, and it was not an amicable separation.
In the Northern states there may have been Copperheads agitating but they did not rise to the level of violence visited upon western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee and throughout the South.
One thing that is seldom mentioned however was the incredibly active horse and cattle rustling industry carried out in Kansas, and Iowa and the Nebraska Territory and throughout Indiana, Illinois etc. In Texas and elsewhere with the high demand by government purchasing agents for livestock and with most of the men of fighting age gone, Sheriffs and Marshals had their hands full.
Never heard much about that. Make-for an interesting thread.
 
The midwest (largely) was home to the Knights of the Golden Circle and the Sons of Liberty--secret societies of Copperheads; in Indianapolis, SOL leaders were tried for treason (they were convicted but that conviction was later overturned).

In Maine it was hard to tell the difference among Copperheads, peace-at-any-price activists and anti-draft advocates. There was a great deal of debating on the issue of peace (and commerce) vs. abolition and I should think that this occurred in many Union states. The woods of the Maine county of Aroostook (way up in the north) were filled with "Skedaddlers" (some Copperheads but mostly those fleeing the draft).

As far as I have found, violence--and treats of violence--came from Southern sympathizers and not the other way around. Copperheads threatened to burn the city of Camden and, in the town of Rockport, the coast guard was called out in the face of potential violence (although it can be argued that this potential came maAinly from anti-drafters).
Thanks Fairfield. Another aspect of the war I was not aware of. Interesting information. Not to be picky but wouldn't that be the Revenue Cutter Service instead of Coat Guard? Thanks.
 
Thanks Fairfield. Another aspect of the war I was not aware of. Interesting information. Not to be picky but wouldn't that be the Revenue Cutter Service instead of Coat Guard? Thanks.
You're right. I rechecked my source (Maine Memory Network) which says: "Rebel sympathizers threatened to burn Camden, and in Rockport, a U.S. cutter sailed into Goose River Harbor with its decks cleared and guns stripped for action, causing Rockport's copperheads – anti-war Democrats who wanted an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates – to beat a hasty retreat for Canada." Thanks!
 
Echoing what @Fairfield said in Northern New Hampshire, up near North Conway, which is over towards Maine, btw, there were Copperheads. I have a book on them somewhere. They started some barn burnings in that area. Barn burnings + Copperheads = dead men or driven out men.

You're right. I rechecked my source (Maine Memory Network) which says: "Rebel sympathizers threatened to burn Camden, and in Rockport, a U.S. cutter sailed into Goose River Harbor with its decks cleared and guns stripped for action, causing Rockport's copperheads – anti-war Democrats who wanted an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates – to beat a hasty retreat for Canada." Thanks!
I would enjoy reading a book on this and the information NH Civil War Gal posted.
 
I would enjoy reading a book on this and the information NH Civil War Gal posted.
I don't know what @NH Civil War Gal used--but, for Maine, online resources would be Maine Memory Network (done by the Maine Historical Society and based on its own extensive collection as well as those of affiliated with local historical societies) and an online blog done by Brian Swartz in the Bangor Daily News (Mr. Swartz is a retired reporter and Civil War history buff). Books would most likely include Joseph Owen's This Day in Maine as well as Mason Philip Smith's Confederates Downeast.
 
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