After the end of the War of the Rebellion, many former Confederates
emigrated into exile, mostly in Latin America.
Mexico
The first ex-Confederates in Mexico immigrated there with
Maj. Gen. John Shelby and the Iron Brigade.
Some of these settled in the northern states along the border (Nuevo Leon,
Couahila, Chihuahua, Tamalipas), while others moved south to join the larger
group.
Under the direction of former COMO Matthew Fontaine Maury of
the Confederate Navy, ex-officers and troops established the New Virginia
Colony in the state of Veracruz in Mexico at the invitation of Emperor
Maximilian. Located in the province
bordering the Gulf of Mexico, its central city was Carlota, named for
Maximilian’s empress. Slaves were not
allowed, slavery still being against Mexican law.
When the republican Juaristas (supporters of Pres. Benito
Juarez, whom the French ousted in 1864) overthrew Maximilian’s government in
1867, these former Confederates returned north.
Interestingly, in 1851 Maury had once formulated a plan to
both eradicate slavery from within the borders of the U.S. and slow or end
Brasil’s slave trade with Africa.
Central America
Other former Confederates settled in what was then British
Honduras (now Belize), a group of Virginians under the Rev. B. R. Duval establishing New Richmond near San Pedro, the
seat of the community, as well as Toledo, Manattee, and eight others on the New
River south of Orange Walk Town (most of these being Louisianans) and around
the town of Punta Gorda, in addition to the majority of the former Confederate
expatriates who remained in Belize City.
Within a few decades, these groups had assimilated and lost their
distinctiveness.
Former Confederate cavalry Major Abednago Greenberry Malcolm
led another group of mostly Kentuckians to establish a colony they called
Medina in Spanish Honduras.
Two other communities of ex-Confederate exiles lasted for a
while in Cuba and in Costa Rica.
South America
Upon being hired as a rear admiral in the Peruvian navy, ex-Confederate
RADM John Tucker led a group of former Confederate expatriates into Peru to establish
New Manasses. At first the navy’s
commander-in-chief, he resigned that post but retained his rank. After resigning entirely, he was assigned to
chart the Amazon River.
Dr. Henry Price, former major in the Confederate medical
corps, took another group into Venezuela to occupy large areas of the state of
Guyana called the Price Grant, where they set up the short-lived settlements of
Orinoco City, Las Tablas, Santa Cruz, Caroni, Paragua, Carratel, and Pattisonville. Within four years, the effort collapsed
entirely.
Los Confederados de Brasil
Of all these, Los Confederados de Brasil is the only former community
whose descendants still survive as a distinctive ethnic group. The best account I have seen of these
expatriate groups is the 2007 master’s thesis of Justin Horton at the East
Tennessee State University: “The Second Lost Cause: Post-National Confederate
Imperialism in the Americas”; it is online.
Between ten and twenty thousand former Confederates emigrated
to the Empire of Brasil at the invitation of Dom Pedro II, who wanted to
encourage the growth of cotton. The now
multi-racial Los Confederados are extremely proud of their history and send
young people to the American South every year to see the former homeland. The original settlers included an ancestor of
former First Lady Rosalyn Carter.
A large number of Los Confederados stayed in Rio de
Janero. Led by Col. William H. Norris of
Alabama, others founded Norris Colony near Santa Barbara (now Americana); Col.
Charles Gunter founded Gunter Colony on Lake Jurapaña and Rio Doce; Dr. James
McFadden Gaston of South Carolina founded Gaston Colony near Xiririca; the Rev.
Ballard S. Dunn founded Lizzieland on the Juquia River; Frank McMullen
established New Texas on the Sao Lourenco River; Col. M. S. Swain founded Parangua
on the Assunguy River; and Lansford Warren Hastings organized Santarem at the
confluence of the Amazon River and Rio Tapaj.
Brasil abolished slavery in 1888. Former slave owners, backed by the military,
overthrew the imperial government in 1889.
A military dictatorship ruled the country till civilian republicans came
to power in 1894.
Other groups
A small group of Confederates became expatriates in Ontario,
the community including former Confederate generals John B. Hood, Jubal Early,
and John C. Breckenridge (also former Secretary of War).
A few found refuge in England, many choosing there to settle
because that is where they were at the time of the surrender.
Some fifty former Confederate officers, along with a like
number of former Union officers, obtained employment with the army of Ismail
Pasha, Khedive (viceroy) of Egypt and Sudan.
The khedivate was an autonomous entity under the Ottoman Empire based in
Constantinople. Their service to the
khedive ended in 1878.
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