Fishing Creek Confederacy
Benton, Columbia County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Alarmed about draft resistance, the federal government deployed 800 troops to the Fishing Creek Valley in August 1864 to suppress the opposition. Peace Democrats suspected of Confederate sympathies were questioned at the Christian church near this site; 44 were arrested and imprisoned at Ft. Mifflin without access to civil courts. While most supported the Union, they disagreed with Pres. Lincoln's wartime policies. In 1866, the US Supreme Court declared military arrest & trial of civilians unconstitutional.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
In August 1864, rumors of draft resistance and Confederate sympathy in the Fishing Creek Valley brought 800 federal troops into this quiet corner of Columbia County. Peace Democrats — Northerners who backed the Union but opposed Lincoln's wartime policies — were interrogated near a church at this site, and 44 were arrested and jailed at Fort Mifflin without access to civil courts. Their ordeal fed a national debate that, in 1866, led the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that military trials of civilians were unconstitutional.
Why it matters
The "Fishing Creek Confederacy" episode dramatized the Civil War's collision between national security and civil liberties, a tension the Supreme Court addressed in a landmark defense of constitutional rights.
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Related events
- · Fishing Creek Confederacy (1864)
- · Ex parte Milligan (1866)
Themes & tags
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