Alcibiades DeBlanc

Alcibiades DeBlanc

Jean Maximilien Alcibiades Derneville DeBlanc (born September 16, 1821 in St. Martinville , St. Martin Parish , Louisiana , † November 8, 1883 ) was an American lawyer and colonel in the Confederate Army and the founder of the Knights of the White Camelia , a militant group of supporters of the White Supremacy , similar to the Ku Klux Klan .

Past life and family

DeBlanc was born in St. Martinville in 1821 . He was of French descent; his ancestors had already settled in Louisiana when Louisiana was first colonized . He became an attorney and MP in the Louisiana Senate .

Civil War

Shortly after the outbreak of the American Civil War, DeBlanc enlisted on June 19, 1861 in Camp Moore, Louisiana as a soldier in the Confederate States Army . He received the rank of captain in Company C in the eighth Louisiana Infantry Regiment ( 8th Louisiana Infantry ), which belonged to the Army of Northern Virginia . He rose to the rank of major in 1862 and a year later, on April 6, was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in Fredericksburg, Virginia . During the Chanchellorsville campaign , DeBlanc was captured by the Union on May 4, 1863. From this he was released a little later.

DeBlanc also took part in the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, where he was given command of the Eighth Louisiana Infantry Regiment in Early's Division after the original commander, Colonel Trevanian D. Lewis, was killed. DeBlanc was wounded in the arm at Gettysburg and raised to the rank of Colonel by Confederate President Jefferson Davis personally on the second day of the battle, July 2, 1863 . On his return to Louisiana in 1864, he commanded Confederate reserve forces in Natchitoches . In June 1865, when most of the Confederate troops had stopped fighting and the Confederation had largely collapsed, he finally surrendered and helped Union General Francis J. Herron maintain control of the formerly Confederate Louisiana until supplies of Union troops arrived.

Knights of the White Camellia

After the war, DeBlanc helped found the militant group Knights of the White Camellia . This rejected the process of Reconstruction , i.e. the reintegration of the former Confederate territories into the United States of America . She also supported the Democratic Party in the presidential election in the United States in 1868 and was in strong opposition to the Republican Party . Even if the election, the Republican candidate Ulysses S. Grant won, the Democratic candidate Horatio Seymour could at least win the state of Louisiana. The Knights of the White Camellia were no longer a major figure after the 1868 election. Other groups like the White League in Louisiana or the White Liners in Mississippi took their place and used similar tactics against Republicans in the 1870s.

DeBlanc was still active as an activist against the Reconstruction . He was particularly opposed to the controversial election as governor of William P. Kellogg in 1874. With 600 supporters and other armed militias, he occupied several important buildings in New Orleans for three days in what has become known as the Battle of Liberty Place . Then they had to abandon their project in the face of government troops. DeBlanc was arrested but never charged. He was celebrated as a hero in the population and called "King of the Cadiens" ( Acadia ).

Next life

In 1876, DeBlanc was appointed judge of the Louisiana Supreme Court by Democratic Governor Francis T. Nicholls after White Democrats regained control of state politics. In the following year, the Union troops also withdrew completely from the south. He worked as a judge until 1879 when a new constitution changed the structure of the court. He then returned to St. Martinville, where he died in 1883.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Andrew Booth, compiler, Records of Louisiana confederate Soldiers and Louisiana Confederate Commands (New Orleans: no publisher, 1920) p. 572
2. ↑ "Jean Maximilien Alcibiades Derne Ville DeBlanc" Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, published by the Louisiana Historical Association in cooperation with the Center for Louisiana Studies at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, 1988. See page 222nd
3. ^ J. Dauphine, The Knights of the White Camellia in Louisiana, 1867-1869, MA Thesis, University of Louisiana-Lafayette, 1983.