White League

The White League was a white paramilitary group started in 1874 that operated to turn Republicans out of office and intimidate freedmen from voting and political organizing. Its first chapter in Grant Parish, Louisiana was made up of many of the Confederate veterans who had participated in the Colfax massacre in April 1873. Chapters were soon founded in other areas of the state and in New Orleans. During the later years of Reconstruction, it was one of the paramilitary groups described as "the military arm of the Democratic Party." Through violence and intimidation, its members reduced Republican voting and contributed to the Democrats' taking over control of the Louisiana Legislature in 1876. After white Democrats regained power, members of the White Leagues were absorbed into the state militias and the National Guard.

Although sometimes linked to the secret vigilante groups of the Ku Klux Klan as well as Knights of the White Camelia, the White League and other paramilitary groups of the later 1870s marked a significant difference. They operated openly, solicited coverage from newspapers, and the men's identities were generally known. Similar groups were the Red Shirts, started in Mississippi in 1875 and active in South Carolina. They had specific political goals to overthrow the Reconstruction government. They directed their activities toward intimidation and removal of Northern and black Republican candidates and officeholders. Made up of well-armed Confederate veterans, they worked to turn Republicans out of office, disrupt their political organizing, and use force to intimidate and terrorize freedmen to keep them from the polls. Backers helped finance purchases of up-to-date arms: Winchester rifles, Colt revolvers and Prussian needle guns.

Although some sources attribute the White League with responsibility for the Colfax Riot of 1873, the organization was not established under this name until March 1874. Confederate veteran, former prisoner of war at Johnson's Island in Ohio, and the former sheriff of Grant Parish, Christopher Columbus Nash, led companies of white militias at Colfax, the seat of Grant Parish. The first unit of the White League was composed of members of Nash's force, mostly Confederate veterans who had participated in the Colfax Massacre. It expressed its purpose as defenders of a "hereditary civilization and Christianity menaced by a stupid Africanization."

In the Coushatta Massacre, another Red River parish, the local White League forced six Republican officeholders to resign and promise to leave the state. The League assassinated them before they left the parish, together with five-twenty freedmen (sources differ) who were witnesses. Generally in remote areas, the White League's show of force and outright murders always overcame opposition. They were Confederate veterans, experienced and well armed.

Later in 1874, the Metropolitan Police of New Orleans, established as a state militia by the Republican governor, attempted to intercept a shipment of arms to the League. The League had entered the city to attempt a takeover of state government. In the subsequent Battle of Liberty Place on September 14, 1874, 5,000 members of the White League routed 3,500 police and state militia to turn out the Republican governor following a disputed election in 1872. They demanded the resignation of Governor William Pitt Kellogg in favor of John McEnery, the Democratic candidate. Kellogg refused and the White League briefly fought a battle in which there were 100 casualties. They took over and controlled the State House, City Hall and arsenal for three days, withdrawing ahead of Federal troops and ships' arriving to reinforce the government. Kellogg had requested aid from President Grant; once the troops arrived, he was restored to office.

Grant sent additional troops within a month in another effort to try to pacify the Red River valley in northern Louisiana. It had been plagued by violence, including the massacres at Colfax in 1873 and Coushatta in 1874.