MILITARY · HISTORICAL MARKER
General Order #11
Holly Springs, Mississippi
· Considered the worst anti-Semitic Government act in American history
Military
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Union General Ulysses S. Grant, frustrated by illegal smuggling of cotton for war materials by Northern and Southern speculators, issued General Order #11 from Holly Springs, explicitly targeting Jews throughout Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky whether they were involved in smuggling or not, declaring that Jews as a class were violating trade regulations and ordering their expulsion from the Department of the Tennessee within twenty-four hours, with any who returned to be arrested. Cesar J. Kaskel, a Jewish Union supporter from Paducah, Kentucky, quickly organized a delegation to protest the order to President Lincoln, who rescinded it immediately on January 4, 1863, recognizing its anti-Semitic character, four days after signing the Emancipation Proclamation ending slavery. The order's economic impact on Jewish Americans was nominal, but its socio-psychological impact on Jews and America was much greater.
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Holly Springs, Mississippi
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