Rebel Refugees: The Confederate Exodus to Mexico
- ISBN-10
- 0991451538
- ISBN-13
- 9780991451531
- Pages
- 369
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2015-08-01
- Author
- Mary-Helen Foxx
Description
Following the fall of the Confederacy thousands of southerners and their families went into self-exile in various parts of the world. General Joseph Orville Shelby led several hundred members of his former Missouri Cavalry Division to Mexico and into the middle of another civil war between Emperor Maximilian and his French protectors on the one hand and Constitutional President Benito Juarez and his supporters. Those former Confederate soldiers who arrived first in 1865 hoped to be the vanguard of an army of mercenaries pledged to become Maximilian's protectors after the French Army withdrew. Maximilian refused their military support but made thousands of acres available for their settlement and colonization. He also employed several former officers to survey and administer this project. This is the story of those who hoped for refuge from the Reconstruction of their former homes in the southern United States and the eventual destruction of their dream.
