THE CONFEDERADOS 
CONFEDERATE VETERANS IN BRAZIL

Albert G. Carr: was a Private in Company A of the 56th Alabama Partisan Rangers. 

Benjamin C. Yancey: Captain of Artillery or the 16th Battalion Alabama Sharpshooters. He returned to the U.S after living in Brazil. 

Benjamin Norris: served as a Corporal in Company H of the 33rd Alabama Infantry. He surrendered at Mont-gomery, Alabama, on May 13, 1865. 

Calvin McKnight: Captain of McKnight's Volunteers Company of Hill Co. Mounted Men, 28th Brigade, Texas Militia. He enlisted for a six months term in the militia on August 10,1861, in Hill County, Texas and was com-missioned Captain on September 19,1861. After his term in the militia ended, he served as a Pvt. & Sergeant in Co. I of Burford's 19th Texas Cavalry. He enlisted on April 2, 1862 at Dresden, in Navarro Co, TX in Capt. Samuel Wright's Company which later renamed Company I. At that time he was 36 years old, 5'10" tall, with gray eyes & black hair, and a resident of Hill County, TX. He listed his occupation as 'farmer'. He camped in Dallas in April and June 1862. He was promoted to 5th Sergeant on October 19,1862. He was promoted to 2nd Sergeant on October 1,1863 and was present when the regiment disbanded on May 25, 1865, at Marshall, Texas. The 19th Texas cavalry fought primarily in Arkansas, Louisiana and Missouri, in over thirty engagements, the more famous of which were Marmaduke's Missouri Raid, and the battles for Helena, Arkansas, Sabine Cross Roads, Louisiana and Natchitoches, Louisiana. 

Capt. William A. H. Terrell: Company D of the 8th Louisiana Cavalry, CSA. 

Dalton Yancey: Captain, Alabama State Militia. He returned to the U.S after living in Brazil. 

Dr. Joseph Pitts: of Tennessee, probably Capt. of 11th Tennessee Infantry. 

Ezekiel B. Pyles: Private, Company A, 11th Kentucky Cavalry & Company D, Dortch's 2nd Battalion Kentucky Cavalry. He originally joined Company A, 11th Kentucky Cavalry in September 1862, and accompanied Gen. John Hunt Morgan on his great Ohio Raid. He escaped by swimming the Ohio River at Buffington Island, and joined other Morgan's Men in Co. D of Dortch's 2nd Battalion Kentucky Cavalry in August 1863, at Knoxville, Tennessee. He fought in the Tennessee & Georgia and at the Battle of Saltville, Virginia, on October 2, 1864. He was assigned to the brigade of Gen. Basil W.Duke & was captured at Kingsport, Tennessee, on December 13, 1864. He was taken to Camp Chase, Ohio, where he was imprisoned until February 17, 1865, when he was transferred to Point Lookout, Maryland, for exchange. After his exchange, he was admitted to a Confederate military hospital at Richmond, VA, on February 26,1865. He was furloughed from hospital for 30 days on March 6,1865, and returned to southwest Virginia where he re-joined his command. When the rest of his command disbanded on April 12,1865, he refused to surrender and made his way to Greensboro, North Carolina, where he became part of the final escort for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. After being released from service by President Davis, he surrendered at Washington, Georgia, May 10, 1865. He went to Brazil and was still alive in 1913, age 66. 

Frank McMullen: was born in Walker County, Georgia in 1835. During the War Between the States, he was a resident of Mexico and met with the Mexican officials on numerous occasions on behalf of the confederacy. 

George S. Barnsley: Assistant Surgeon, 8th Georgia Infantry (Rome Lt. Guards). He enlisted as a private in Co. A, 8th Georgia Infantry, in Floyd County, Georgia on May 18, 1861. He was appointed as a hospital steward on December 24,1862. He participated in most of the battles fought by the Army of Northern Virginia, including Gettysburg. He was detailed to the Medical Department at Richmond, VA in 1864 and was appointed Assistant Surgeon on March 22, 1865. He was captured when the Yankees took the city in April 1865. 

George Washington Carr: was 1st Lieutenant and Assistant Surgeon in Co. A of the 56th Alabama Partisan Rangers. 

Green Ferguson: was a private in Company L of the South Carolina State Troops .He enlisted at Rich Hill County, South Carolina, on August 1, 1863, and fought against Sherman during his March to the sea. He surrendered near Columbia, South Carolina, in April 1865. 

Henry Clay Norris: Company G, 15th Confederate Cavalry .The unit was stationed at Mobile and Pensacola and fought in battles at Tunica, Louisiana and Claiborne, AL. He surrendered on April 30,1865, at Demopolis, Alabama. He was the son of William H. Norris and was born in Dallas Co, Alabama, on June 1, 1842. He died on January 20, 1912, at Villa Americana, Brazil. 

Henry Farrar Steagall: enlisted in 1862 as a private in Capt. John R. Smith's Company of Gonzales County (Texas) Cavalry, which became Co. B of Waul's Texas Legion. At the time of his enlistment, he was described as age 41, born in North Carolina, married and a resident of Gonzales County, Texas. He was listed as present on the muster roll for June 13, 1862, at Camp Waul, Washington County, Texas. He was captured at the Fall of Vicksburg, Mississippi, on July 4, 1863. He was exchanged on September 12, 1863, and was transferred for duty in Texas. He was present for duty on May 16, 1865, at Galveston, Texas, as a private, although at least one muster roll lists him as a "Brevet 2nd Lieutenant". 

John Barkley MacFadden: was born in South Carolina in 1864 and enlisted on August 13,1861, at Yorkville, SC, as a private in Company C of the 12th South Carolina Infantry. He later transferred to Company B and took part in the battles of Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Sharpsburg, Fredricksburg and the siege of Petesburg .He surrendered with Gen. Lee at Appomattox on April 9,1865. 

John Henry Rowe: was born Feb 22, 1846 USA and died on Dec. 16, 1922. He married to Sarah L?. He was resident of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, when the War began . He enlisted as a private in Company F of the 50th Alabama Infantry in March of 1862 and fought at the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee. The 50th Alabama Infantry was originally named Coltart's 26th Alabama Infantry , but was renamed the 50th in June 1863. Colonel John C. Coltart commanded it. The 50th also fought at Murfreesboro , Chickamauga , Atlanta and Franklin. The regiment surrendered in April 1865 in North Carolina . John Henry Rowe was captured during the war in the Battle of Resaca, Georgia. In 1864 he was take to Camp Douglas P.O.W Camp at Chicago, Illinois. He was kept there until March 15, 1865, when he was sent to Point Lookout , Maryland , where he was exchanged on April 12, 1865. 

John Henry Scurlock: enlisted in Company I of the 6th Texas Cavalry at Dallas, Texas, in September 1861. He fought in the battles of Elkhorn Tavern, Corinth, Hatchie Bridge and the Atlanta Campaign .He surrendered in Mississippi in May 1865. 

John R. Bufford: enlisted in April 1862, at Eufaula, Alabama and was appointed Sergeant in Captain Reuben Koulb's Battery of the Barbour Alabama Light Artillery. He transferred on November 6, 1864, with the rank of private to the Eufaula Battery of Alabama Light Artillery. He was in St. Mary's Hospital at Union Springs, AL from September 29,1864, until November 6, 1864, but took part in the battles of Kentucky Campaign, Hood's Tennessee Campaign, and Chickamauga, and was paroled at Meridian, Mississippi, on May 10, 1865. At his parole, he listed his residence as Eufaula, AL. He moved to Brazil and was alive in 1913 at age of 72. 

Jonathan Ellsworth: Drummer, 1st Arkansas Brigade. Joseph E. Whitaker: 2nd Lieutenant & 1st Lieutenant , Company A& L, 24th Mississippi Infantry. He fought in the Battles of Lookout Mountain, Chickamauga and Franklin, while in Walthall's Brigade . He was slightly wounded at Franklin. He also participated in the Battle of Bentonville , North Carolina , and was promoted during the last days of war to 1st Lieutenant of Company L of the 24th Mississippi Infantry. He surrendered at Greensboro, North Carolina , in April 1865. He moved to Brazil and was live in 1917 , age 81. 

Joseph Long Minchin: Co. I, 4th Florida Infantry & Orderly Sergeant and prison guard at Andersonville, Georgia. He was alive in 1913, age 71. He was born near Thomasville, Georgia on January 16, 1841, and went to Florida as child. He enlisted in 1861, and fought at Chickamauga & Atlanta. He surrendered at Macon, Georgia in April 1865. He married to Julia Antionette Pyles on March 15, 1866. She was born near Macon, Georgia in 1849. They moved to Brazil on June 24, 1867. He worked as foreman on coffee plantation and later acquired his own farm of 900 acres. Living in 1921 in Nova Odessa, Brazil. 

Joseph Meriwether: enlisted in Company H of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers in December 1861 and took part in the bombing of Ft.Sunter. This unit disbanded in July 1861 and re-enlisted at Edgefield, South Carolina, in August 1863, as a private in Company D of the 1st South Carolina Infantry. He served under General Robert E. Lee in the Army of Northern Virginia until the surrendered at Appomattox on April 9,1865. 

L.S.Bowen: served as a private in CompanyA of the 8th Texas Cavalry (also called Terry's Texas Rangers). He fought at Shiloh, Chickamauga, Murfreesboro, Knoxville, the Atlanta Campaign, and surrendered in Georgia on April 26,1865. 

Louis Demaret: Private, Co. C, 5th Texas Infantry. He fought in the battles of Seven Pines, Cold Harbor, Gettysburg, Chickamauga and Petersburg. He moved to Brazil and was alive in 1913, aged 73. 

Lucien Barnsley: Private, Company A, 8th Georgia Infantry (Rome Lt. Guards) .He enlisted on May 18, 1861, in Floyd County, Georgia, and participated in most of the battles fought by the Army of Northern Virginia, including Gettysburg. On October 31,1864, he was detailed to serve as a private on the staff of a Dr. Miller in the Medical Department at Greensboro, North Carolina, and surrendered when that city was occupied by the Yankees in April 1865. Major by the other Confederate officers during and after the war . It appears that he was commissioned as a Major and assigned to diplomatic service in Mexico under the direction of Confederate Consul John T. Pickett. McMullen was granted amnesty in Texas on May 29, 1865. 

Napoleon Bonaparte McAlpine: was a private in Co. C, 2nd Alabama Cavalry. He enlisted on March 22, 1862, at Eutaw, Alabama. The record on file is a muster roll for August 31 through October 31, 1863, which shows that he had been on detached duty at Okolona, MS but had returned to duty. The unit fought in Atlanta and Carolinas campaigns and was part of the last escort for President Jefferson Davis and surrendered in May 1865 at Forsyth, GA. He moved to Brazil and was alive in 1913, age 66 or 68. Niels Nielson: Alabama Unit. 

Raibon Steagall: In 1850 he was resident of Franklin County, North Carolina. He enlisted in the C.S.A in Robeson County, North Carolina, and was appointed in September 6,1861, as 2nd lieutenant of Company A of the 31st North Carolina Infantry. He was born about 1831 in North Carolina. 

Robert Cicero Norris: Private, Company F, 15th Alabama Infantry & 1st Lieutenant company A, 60th Alabama Infantry. He was alive in 1913, age 75. He was born on March 7, 1837, in Perry County, Alabama, but was a resident of Dallas County, Alabama. He was the son of William H. Norris, and was educated at Fulton Academy & Mobile Medical College. He enlisted on January 28, 1861, under Capt. Theodore O'Hara to take Pensacola Navy Yard. On July 3, 1861, he enlisted in Co. F, 15th Alabama Infantry, in Stonewall Jackson's Brigade. In 1862, he was appointed Sergeant Major, and in 1864, was appointed 1st Lieutenant of Co. A, 60th Alabama Infantry. He was wounded 4 times and fought at Malvern Hill, Cold Harbor, Cedar Run, 2nd Manassas, Sharpsburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Wilderness, Petersburg, etc. He was captured at Hatcher's Run & held at Ft. Delaware until June 17,1865. He went to Brazil in 1865, but returned in 1890 to finish his medical degree. He returned to Vila Americana, Brazil and practiced medicine. He was a master mason. He died on May 14,1913 in Brazil. 

Robert Cullen: He enlisted in the Confederate State Army on June 15,1862, at Dallas - Texas, as a private in Company A of R.M. Gano's Squadron of Texas Cavalry. Later in the same month his company was transferred and became Company A of Gano's 7th Kentucky Cavalry in the famous cavalry command of Gen. John Hunt Morgan. Pvt. Cullen fought at Gallatin, Tennessee, at the battle of Murfreesboro, and on Morgan's famous Ohio Raid in 1863.Private Robert Cullen swam across the Ohio River to avoid capture. He made his way to Sparta, Tennessee, where he rejoined the remnants of Morgan's command. He joined Company D of Dortch's 2nd Battalion of Kentucky Cavalry, along with Ezequiel and William Pyles. These men served together and fought in most of the major battles around Atlanta. In the last days of war, they served as part of the final escort for President Jefferson Davis until they were forced to surrender at Washington, Georgia, on May 10, 1865. Later on all three of the soldiers moved to Brazil along with their families. 

Robert Meriwether: enlisted in the Confederate Army before there was a force! He was Captain of Company H of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers. This regiment fired the FIRST SHOTS at Fort Sumter, the act that officially started the War Between the States. The 1st South Carolina Volunteers disbanded soon after the surrender of Fort Sumter and Captain Meriwether joined the 6th Battalion of South Carolina Reserves and was promoted to the rank of Major and was the commanding officer for the battalion. The 6th Battalion of South Carolina reserves served as guards at the prisoner of war camp at Florence, South Carolina, until November 1864. On November 5,1864,the 6th reported 262 men present for duty. On November 3,1864,Major Meriwether was ordered to take his Battalion to Augusta, Georgia, and join the fight against Yankee General Sherman and his March to the Sea. Over the next four months the 6th fought numerous battles and skirmishes against Sherman in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. On March 31,1865,Major Meriwether was present with the 6th near Smithfield, North Carolina, under the command of Gen. Joseph E.Johnson. The 6th fought at the Battle of Bentonville, NC, and was present for duty in Blanchard's Brigade near Raleigh, NC, on April 10,1865. Major Meriwether surrendered at Greensboro, NC in May 1865,after being surrendered by Gen. Johnson .He returned to South Carolina, but moved to Brazil in August 1865, to become one of the earliest Confederados. 

Robert Porter Thomas: served as a private in Company F of the 32nd Texas Cavalry. 

Thomas Lafayette Keese: was a confederate soldier .He enlisted as a Private in Co. B of Wood's 36th Texas Cavalry in 1862 and fought in the battles of Pleasant Hill and Mansfield , Louisiana . He surrendered with his regiment on June 2, 1865 at Galveston , Texas .He died on Sept 23,1894 and is buried at Santa Barbara D'Oeste, Sao Paulo Brazil 

Thomas Stewart McKnight: Private, Co. I, Burford's 19th Texas Cavalry. He was the brother of Calvin McKnight. He enlisted on April 2, 1862 , at Dresden at Navarro County, Texas , at age 34, 5'9 1/2"tall, with gray eyes and brown hair . He listed his occupation as "blacksmith". He served honorably until discharged on August 13,1864, based on a surgeon's certificate that he was physically unfit for service. 

William A. Prestrige: Private, Co. A, 3rd Alabama Cavalry. He enlisted on September 25, 1861, at Mount Sterling, Alabama. He was present for every action of his regiment, including Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, the Atlanta Campaign, and Bentonville, and was paroled at Charlotte, North Carolina, in May 1865. He moved to Brazil and was alive in 1913, age 73. 

William F. Pyles: Private, Company A, 11th Kentucky Cavalry & Company D, Dortch's 2nd Battalion Kentucky Cavalry. He was the brother of Ezequiel Pyles, and originally joined Company A of the 11th Kentucky Cavalry in September 1862. He accompanied Gen. John Hunt Morgan on Great Ohio Raid, and escaped capture by swimming the Ohio River at Buffington Island, Ohio. He joined with the remnants of Morgan's command in Company D of Dortch's 2nd Battalion Kentucky Cavalry in August 1863 at Knoxville, Tennessee, and fought in Georgia & Tennessee, and at the Battle of Saltville, Virginia, on October 2, 1864. He was transferred to Gen. Basil W. Duke's Brigade and was captured at Kingsport, Tennessee, on Dec 31,1864. He was taken to Camp Chase, Ohio, where he remained until transferred to Point Lookout, Maryland for exchange on February 17, 1865. He rejoined his command in southwest Virginia. He refused to surrender when his unit disbanded near Christiansburg, VA, on April 12, 1865 and made his way to Greensboro, North Carolina, where he became part of final escort for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. After being released from the service by President Davis, he surrendered at Washington, Georgia, on May 10, 1865. He went to Brazil and was still alive in 1913, age 67. 

William Meriwether: enlisted in Company H of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers at Barnwell, SC, in December 1860 and took part in the bombing of Ft. Sumter. He enlisted for only a 6 months term and was discharged in July 1861.

• Search form The Lost Confederados Robb Aaron Gordon

• BY GARY HAWKINS - EVEN FARTHER SOUTH - SEPT/OCTOBER 2008

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• Why thousands of Southerners fled to Brazil after the Civil War, why they stayed, and why their descendants still remember>View more photos from the story I set out from rural North Carolina where folks drink beer, eat barbecue, and listen to Skynyrd on the local classic rock station, flew ten hours to São Paulo, took a cab eighty miles north through a pleasant stretch of Brazilian countryside, and exited onto a dirt road that wound through endless fields of sugarcane before delivering me here to the Cemitério do Campo, where I’ve just stepped through the gate to find folks drinking beer, eating barbecue, and listening to Skynyrd on the PA. The occasion is the Festa Confederada, an annual fund-raiser hosted by the Fraternidade Descendência Americana for upkeep of the grounds, and I’ve come south, way south, in hopes of discovering why, after five generations of intermarriage with Brazilian locals, the people here still seem so obsessed with their Southern heritage.

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• A little-known fact: Of the more than forty thousand Southerners who fled their homes after the Civil War, at least nine thousand migrated to Brazil. Many of these Confederados assimilated into the Rio or São Paulo societies, some returned to America for financial or nostalgic reasons, but the more determined formed insular Protestant colonies that more or less re-created Dixie on foreign soil. Five generations later I’m visiting the most successful of these settlements, the Santa Bárbara D’Oeste colony founded by former Alabama senator Colonel William Norris, who at age sixty-five declared that although he knew nothing of the Brazilian culture or its language, he was “just mad enough to give it a go.” The cemetery itself was gifted to the Confederados by Colonel Anthony T. Oliver, a first-generation colonist whose wife died shortly after their arrival here in 1867. Evidently, Protestants couldn’t get themselves buried in Catholic cemeteries, so Oliver donated two and a half acres for this unforeseen need. I can just make out the cemetery on the far side of the outpost, occluded by shady foliage and the general busyness of the Festa. That’s where I’ll conclude my sweep of the grounds.

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• The Festa feels like a cross between a low-key county fair and a formalized picnic. Half of the estimated fifteen hundred Festa goers are seated in rented chairs under awnings in a grassy clearing near the center of the outpost. The rest are milling around the retail booths that line the perimeter. I blend right in, smiling and nodding my way to an open-air kitchen where I find a generous spread of Southern basics—frango frito (fried chicken), salada repolho (coleslaw), and pudim de banana (guess), mingled with a dozen or so Brazilian mystery dishes.

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• When a fellow beside me orders a hamburger, the server places a slice of ham on the ground beef and asks him if he would also care for eggs. He declines, and I mosey over to check out my beverage options—Skol, Ashby, Crystal, or Cerpa—all beers. Then to the sweets, booth after booth, where I am hoping to find signature holiday edibles, perhaps a Confederados version of Peeps, candy corn, or green beer, but can do no better than a yogurty concoction with red, white, and blue sprinkles. When I reach the non-edibles, I find every kind of Descendência paraphernalia—mugs, belt buckles, bumper stickers, caps—all emblazoned with the Confederate battle flag, which means you can buy it down here but good luck wearing it around town back home. The T-shirts are lettered with Portuguese phrases that are lost on me. I’m pretty sure they don’t say, Brazilian by birth, Confederado by the grace of God! or, Hell no, we won’t forget! The Confederate infantry caps with the ironed-on Brazilian flag patches are especially cool. Cool enough that I’m mentally converting reals to dollars when Kenny Rogers drops abruptly off the PA. Tap tap, mike check. Looks like something’s happening on the stage at the northern end of the outpost, so I return the cap to the vendor and say, “Not today,” which she doesn’t understand, and join the herd heading northward.When I reach the stage, I find a color guard of sorts standing at attention on a concrete patio. All are dapper young men, dressed in Rebel gray with showy yellow sashes and aviator shades. The fellow on the end, the one who keeps looking around self-consciously and chuckling to himself as if he’d been asked to come down and help out because we’re short one Rebel and could sure use you, is sporting a soul patch. The floor of the patio has been painted into a likeness of the Confederate flag so enormous that it could double as a regulation shuffleboard lane.

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• Behind the Confederate patio stands a two-room museum, and lining the concrete dance floor are five flagpoles. When enough of a crowd has gathered, the president of the Fraternidade, Cicero Carr, orders up the music. The crowd falls silent, and the flags are hoisted.In Festas past, the ceremony went this way: The Brazilian flag, or Auriverde (“of gold and green”), was raised to the Brazilian national anthem, which is a bouncy number but goes on longer than a four-verse hymn. Next up was the American flag, raised to “America the Beautiful,” and everyone more or less stood through that. Then the Stars and Bars went up to a rousing chorus of “Dixie” and everyone went crazy, especially the old-timers who whooped it up and rebel-yelled and danced all over the place. I would’ve paid to see that, but the ceremony proved a little too ebul-lient, a little too in-your-face for some sensitive someone somewhere, so it was bagged in favor of its present staid alternative: All flags, including two that I’d never seen, are raised together, verrrry slowly, to the singing of the Brazilian national anthem.Getting Out of DodgeIt’s impossible to exaggerate the harsh feelings of defeated Southerners toward the Northern army. They might have been willing to accept military defeat, but when their families were burned out of their homes, robbed, and left to starve, a deeper resentment began to take hold. A resentment against America itself. With citizens starving and property in distress, unscrupulous Yankee agents purchased estates at fire-sale prices. A farm worth ,000 could be purchased for 0. The entire town of Fernandina, Florida, was purchased for ,000. Congress piled on by branding 3.5 million Southerners traitors and depriving them of their citizenship. Northern newspapers called for mass hangings. Jefferson Davis was thrown in jail. It’s no wonder that thousands of Southerners began to pack up and flee to almost anywhere else.

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• The voyage to Brazil was booked through emigrant organizations such as the Southern Colonization Society of Edgefield, South Carolina. Most of the original colonists were the equivalent of our present-day upper-middle class: doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, and businessmen. They were lured to Brazil by the land, the promise of a new day, and a profound spirit of adventure. The journey was often difficult: hammocks sleeping three, with upwards of three hundred passengers per vessel. The early colonists set out from Charleston and traveled thirty days to Rio de Janeiro.

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• Later expeditions set out from ports as far south as Galveston and as far north as New York. The trips were organized the way the pioneers organized their wagon trains—one after another and each responsible for all others, and for the most part this technique worked. Sometimes, however, the trips became perilous, as recorded in the diary of Sarah Bellona Smith Ferguson on the ship Derby in 1866. The shady Spanish captain had been bribed by Yankee agents to orchestrate a shipwreck in the treacherous waters near Cuba by tying down the helm and retiring to his cabin. “When the trick was discovered,” Ferguson writes in her diary, “McMullen and Judge Dyer and other resolute men entered the [cabin] and at the point of a six shooter forced the captain to loose the helm.” But they were too late. The vessel slammed against the rocks, and its passengers barely escaped with their lives."Dixie" in Portuguese. 

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• When the flags are up, a tribute to the Confederacy begins. The event resembles a Miss Teen USA pageant, and the girls pull it off so convincingly that it almost feels like a parody. Teen and preteen girls, wearing sashes to represent their states, form a line across the stage. Their escorts are the same dapper young men who hoisted the flags, each now bearing a state flag. When a moderator calls a state, its representative steps forward to a smattering of applause, and some variation on this we’ve all seen. The feature that stands out, the one quality that makes the tribute more Brazilian than Southern, is the defiant, check-me-out posture of the young ladies. It goes like this: A moderator speaking with the relaxed monotone of a fashion show emcee calls for Miss Georgia and she steps forward, hands on her hips, chin lifted, sweeping the crowd with her gaze as if coached to make eye contact with everyone there. The moderator says something in Portuguese, then “state song by Ray Char-lees, ‘Georgia On My Mind-ee,’” after which Miss Georgia swings her hips away from the crowd and steps aside. The same routine is performed by all of them, even a deliberately nerdy nine-year-old with thick glasses and a schoolmarmish hair bun.

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• The baddest of the bad girls is probably Miss Tennessee, a raven-haired beauty with impressive shoulders, a garnet gown, and black formal gloves. She parks her hands on her hips, shifts her weight to one foot, and looks me dead in the eye. Intended or not, these gestures are downright provocative, and now I’m wondering how tough it would be for a Protestant colonist to look the other way when the right Catholic local came along. Intermarriage for the first generation of Confederados—easily the most xenophobic—is estimated at 17 percent. From there the number escalated, and something in this hand-to-hip maneuver suggests the reason for it.Announcements, presentations, and some awards. Cicero Carr is buying time for a gown change. When he finishes, the young adults return to the stage, the boys unchanged and the girls in bright, off-primary hoopskirts—crimson, lavender, custard, periwinkle, pomegranate, fandango, and fuchsia. The music is cued and they launch into an energetic period dance that I’ve seen somewhere before, but it’s not until they segue into a group waltz that I recognize it as a re-staging of the Virginia reel–waltz montage from Gone With the Wind. “Tonight I want to dance,” Scarlett tells Rhett. “Tonight I would dance with Abe Lincoln himself.” Maybe I don’t get out (of the country) enough, but this demonstration of Hollywood’s image-making authority took me by surprise.

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• The Confederates migrate to Brazil, form an isolated society largely immune to four generations of American homogenization, and Hollywood still manages to rewrite their history for them.When the waltz concludes, the youth perform a square dance set to “Dixie” followed by a line dance set to a medley of Irish jigs. It’s all very lively and spring-like, even if April is autumn in the southern hemisphere. The girls in their gowns are capsized tulips skipping along invisible currents, and the boys are upstanding courtiers from an old-fashioned mating ritual. Another gown change and the girls come prancing out in pastel yellow to the tune of “The Yellow Rose of Texas.” Judging by the enthusiastic response, this is a crowd favorite. For me it’s dangerously close to a Lawrence Welk skit. Yet another gown change, and just when I thought I had this thing pegged as fifties Americana, the girls strut out in black petticoats and launch into a spirited, high-kicking cancan. If the girls get their way, this one will become another big crowd-pleaser. They’re practically begging for wolf whistles, throwing up their skirts to “Galop Infernal,” locking arms for an up-tempo chorus and building to a big rowdy finish.It couldn’t get any better than that, so I slipped away from the main stage and strolled in the general direction of the cemetery, thinking how all of this could go terribly wrong—a benefit concert, the booking of a professional dance troupe from São Paulo, an overblown ribfest—and then I realized that if it was going to go wrong, it would’ve gone wrong already, but it hasn’t, because the Festa coordinators are not simple folk who take themselves too seriously, but accomplished professionals with bigger fish to fry.

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• Cicero Carr is an engineer, and his cousin Daniel Carr de Muzio, an interpreter by trade, holds advanced degrees in sociology and cultural anthropology. Daniel’s son is a prominent surgeon in São Paulo, and his daughter is a practicing civil attorney, and those are just the first few folks I met. So no, this is not Mayberry, Brazil. These are disciplined, tough-minded individuals, worthy of their ancestors’ commitment to the Terra Nova.

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• Wikipedia - Confederados

Posted 01 jul 2017 by mamawthomas

SOURCE:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederados

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Confederados

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The Confederados (Portuguese pronunciation: [kõfedeˈɾadus]) is an ethnic sub-group in Brazil descended from some 10,000 Confederate Americans who immigrated chiefly to the area of the city of São Paulo,Brazil after the American Civil War. Although many returned to the United States, some remained and descendants of Confederados can be found in many different cities throughout Brazil.

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Original Confederados

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In 1865 at the end of the American Civil War a substantial number of American Southerners left the South; many moved to other parts of the United States, such as the American West, but a few left the country entirely. The most popular country of Southern emigration was Brazil.

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Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil wanted to encourage the cultivation of cotton. After the American Civil War Dom Pedro offered the potential immigrants subsidies on transport to Brazil, cheap land, and tax breaks. Former Confederate President Jefferson Davis and General Robert E. Lee advised Southerners against emigration, but many ignored their advice and set out to establish a new life away from the destruction of war and Northern rule under Reconstruction.

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Many Southerners who took the Emperor's offer had lost their land during the war, were unwilling to live under a conquering army, or simply did not expect an improvement in the South's economic position. In addition, Brazil still had slavery (and did not abolish it until 1888). Although a number of historians state that the existence of slavery was an appeal, Alcides Gussi, an independent researcher of State University of Campinas, found that only four families owned a total of 66 slaves from 1868 to 1875.[citation needed] Most of the immigrants were from the states of Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, and South Carolina.

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No one has determined how many Americans immigrated to Brazil in the years following the end of the American Civil War. As noted in unpublished research, Betty Antunes de Oliveira found in port records of Rio de Janeiro that some 20,000 Americans entered Brazil from 1865 to 1885. Other researchers have estimated the number at 10,000. An unknown number returned to the United States when conditions in the southern US improved. Most immigrants adopted Brazilian citizenship.

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The immigrants settled in various places, ranging from the urban areas of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo to the northern Amazon region, especially Santarém, and Paraná in the south. Most of the Confederados settled near São Paulo in the area to the north of it, around present-day Santa Bárbara d'Oeste and Americana, Brazil. The latter name was derived from Vila dos Americanos, as the natives called it. The first Confederado record-ed[by whom?] was Colonel William H. Norris of Alabama.[citation needed] The colony at Santa Bárbara D'Oeste is sometimes called the Norris Colony.

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Dom Pedro's program was judged a success for both the immigrants and the Brazilian government. The settlers quickly gained a reputation for honesty and hard work. The settlers brought modern agricultural techniques for cotton, as well as new food-crops, that spread among native Brazilian farmers. Some dishes of the American South were also adopted in general Brazilian culture, such as cheese pie, vinegar pie, and southern fried chic-ken.

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The early Confederados continued many elements of American culture, for instance, establishing the first  Baptist churches in Brazil. In a change from the South, the Confederados also educated slaves and black freedmen in their new schools.

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A few newly freed slaves in the United States emigrated alongside their confederate counterparts and in some cases with their previous owners. One such former slave, Steve Watson, became the administrator of the sawmill of his former owner, Judge Dyer of Texas. Upon returning to the USA (due to homesickness and financial failure) Dyer deeded his remaining property, the sawmill and 12 acres, to Watson. In the area of the Juquia valley there are many Brazilian families with the surname Vassão, the Portuguese pronunciation of Watson.

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The American Civil War fought in Brazil

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Main article: Bahia Incident

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The USS Wachusett was typical of the vessels used by the Union Navy for offshore blockading and intercepting Confederate commerce raiders. Commissioned in March 1862, Wachusett initially served with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron before being transferred to the special "Flying Squadron". This organisation was tasked with tracking down and sinking Confederate raiders. In February 1864, the ship was ordered to go to Bahia, Brazil, with orders to protect American commerce in the area. That October, Wachusett encountered the raider CSS Florida in Bahia harbor. Though technically in neutral waters, Wachusett's captain, Commander Napoleon Collins, ordered an attack. Catching Florida by surprise, men from Wachusett quickly captured the ship. After a brief refit, Wachusett received orders to sail for the Far East to aid in the hunt for CSS Shenandoah. It was en route when news was received that the war had ended.

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Descendants of the immigrants

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The first generation of Confederados remained an insular community. As is typical, by the third generation, most of the families had intermarried with native Brazilians or immigrants of other origins. Descendants of the Confederados increasingly spoke the Portuguese language and identified themselves as Brazilians. As the area around Santa Bárbara d'Oeste and Americana turned to the production of sugar cane and society became more mobile, the Confederados moved to cities for urban jobs. Today, only a few descendant families still live on land owned by their ancestors. The descendants of the Confederados are mostly scattered throughout Brazil. They maintain the headquarters of their descendant organization at the Campo center in Santa Bárbara D'Oeste, where there is a cemetery, chapel and memorial.

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The descendants foster a connection with their history through the Associação Descendência Americana  (American Descendants Association), a descendant organization dedicated to preserving their unique mixed culture. The Confederados also have an annual festival, called the Festa Confederada, dedicated to fund the Campo center. The festival is marked by Confederate flags, Confederate uniforms and hoop skirts, food of the American South with a Brazilian flair, and dances and music popular in the American South during the antebellum period. The descendants maintain affection for the Confederate flag even though they identify as completely Brazilian. Many Confederado descendants have traveled to the United States at the invitation of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, an American descendants' organization, to visit Civil War battlefields, attend re-enactments, or see where their ancestors lived.

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The Confederate flag in Brazil has not acquired the same political symbolism as it has in the United States. Many descendants of the Confederados are of mixed race and reflect the varied ethnic groups of Brazilian society in their physical appearance. In the wake of then-Governor Jimmy Carter's visit to the region in 1972,  Americana  incorporated the Confederate flag into the municipal coat of arms (though the largely Italian-descended popu-lation removed it some years later, reasoning that descendants of Confederado now comprise but a tenth of the municipal population). While in Brazil, Carter also visited the city of Santa Bárbara d'Oeste and the grave at the Campo of a great-uncle of his wife Rosalyn. Her relative was one of the original Confederados. Carter remarked that the Confederados sounded and seemed just like Southerners.

Campo Cemetery with its chapel and memorial, in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, is a site of memory, as most of the original Confederados from the region were buried there. Because they were Protestant rather than Catholic, they were prohibited from the local cemeteries and had to establish their own. The Confederado descendants' community has also contributed to an Immigration Museum at Santa Bárbara d'Oeste to present the history of immigration to Brazil.