General Order No. 11 was issued by Major General Ulysses S. Grant on December 17, 1862, during the Vicksburg campaign of the American Civil War. The order emerged from Grant's efforts to reduce corruption among Union soldiers and stop the illicit trade in Southern-produced cotton, which he believed was being run "mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders." The context for this action lay in the Union administration's authorization of licensed traders to conduct business with the Union army, creating opportunities for unlicensed black market operations. Union army commanders in the South bore responsibility for administering trade licenses and controlling this unauthorized cotton trade alongside their regular military duties.
The expulsion began immediately following the order's issuance. At Holly Springs, Mississippi, where Grant's supply depot was located, Jews were rounded up and forced to leave the city on foot. This action was set to continue further, threatening additional expulsions in Grant's military district, which comprised areas of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
The expulsion effort was interrupted by military events beyond Grant's control. On December 20, 1862, just three days after Grant issued his order, Confederate States Army troops led by Major General Earl Van Dorn launched the Holly Springs Raid. This Confederate attack prevented the potential expulsion of more Jews from the region. The raid disrupted Grant's supply operations and halted the systematic implementation of the expulsion order that had begun at Holly Springs.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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