ABSTRACT
In the face of postwar demands to recognize Union civil authority, ex-Confederates sought to rationalize their wartime sacrifice and maintain honor. The brief wartime Union occupation and attendant destruction in central Louisiana hardened animosities against Unionists, fostered continued guerrilla conflicts between local Unionists and Confederates and limited the success of postwar reconciliation efforts. Moreover, for most whites, catalyzed by racially charged wartime interactions with the Union military, commitment to racial solidarity trumped disagreements over secession or wartime service. Despite the Union military’s initially conciliatory policy toward Confederates, southern newspapers contended that the Union war was to destroy slavery. In central Louisiana, widespread Civil War-era white disaffection did not provide serious opportunities for postwar Republican advancement. During the war, many wealthier and poorer central Louisiana whites related their sacrifices to the physical or financial security of their households or communities.
