Monday, April 3, 2017

No Draft!

This is coolbert:

Finally ending extracts with my commentary from those presentations as seen at the Civil War Museum, Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA.


"No Draft!"

"No Draft!"

"The first Draft riot in American history occurred November 10, 1862 in Port Washington, Wisconsin as draft commissioner William A. Pors began a lottery to fill the draft quota of Ozaukee Country.An angry crowd of Germans and Luxembourgers began shouting 'No draft! No Draft!' The crowd quickly turned into a mob which rushed the building, man-handled Pors, and destroyed his draft equipment. The mob also ransacked several homes of Republicans who supported the draft.Several companies of the 28th Wisconsin were ordered from Milwaukee to put down the rioting. About 150 people were arrested. Pors completed the draft without incident a few days later under the watchful eyes of soldiers armed with muskets and bayonets."

German nationals rioting! For shame. Many of those rioting and refusing conscription best described as Forty-Eighters? Persons having fled Europe in the aftermath of the failed 1848 rebellions, seeking sanctuary in the United States. Being drafted to fight in a war for which they had no "skin" hardly acceptable from their perspective. Flight to Canada also seen as an option? For shame!!

Other Forty-Eighters in contrast to the rioters forming distinct German speaking regiments within the Union army participating with valor during the American Civil War. 

coolbert.


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