Fishing Creek Confederacy

"The whole thing is a grand farce" -George Cadwalader

The Fishing Creek Confederacy was an alleged military uprising in northern Columbia County, Pennsylvania and southern Sullivan County, Pennsylvania during the American Civil War. Residents of Columbia County strongly opposed military drafts that were being conducted there, leading to widespread desertion and draft evasion. Although there was draft evasion in the county, there was no actual armed resistance.

Quotes

• I want you to go up there and destroy this organization--this "Fishing Creek Confederacy" as it is called...
  • Darius N. Couch as quoted in The Fishing Creek Confederacy: A Story of Civil War Draft Resistance

• The whole thing is a grand farce.
  • General George Cadwalader as quoted in The Fishing Creek Confederacy: A Story of Civil War Draft Resistance

• The Fishing Creek Confederacy which to some may seem a myth was to us a bitter reality.
  • Newspaper article from the Republican, as quoted in The Fishing Creek Confederacy: A Story of Civil War Draft Resistance

• The story of draft resistance in Columbia County is one of the most complex tales of such activity in Pennsylvania, primarily because of the lacunae of primary sources and the nature of the surviving primary sources.
  • Richard A. Sauers and Peter Tomasak (authors of The Fishing Creek Confederacy: A Story of Civil War Draft Resistance)

• No open resistance, no organization in opposition to the federal authorities, nothing but the act of a few men who fled to escape being forced into the army &mdash and this is the history of the 'Fishing Creek Confederacy'
  • Charles R. Buckalew as quoted in The Fishing Creek Confederacy: A Story of Civil War Draft Resistance