page_title: General Order No. 11 (1862)
section_title: Issued General Order No. 11 (1862)
hierarchical_section_title: General Order No. 11 (1862) / Issued General Order No. 11 (1862)
caption_attribution_description: John Aaron Rawlins was an United States Army general during the American Civil War, and later U.S. Secretary of War. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cwpb.05648
context_page_description: General Order No. 11 was a controversial order issued by Union Major-General Ulysses S. Grant on December 17, 1862, during the Vicksburg Campaign, that took place during the American Civil War. The order expelled all Jews from Grant's military district, comprising areas of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky. Grant issued the order in an effort to reduce Union military corruption, and stop an illicit trade of Southern cotton, which Grant thought was being run "mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders." In the war zone, authorized by the Lincoln administration, the United States licensed traders through the Army, which created a market for unlicensed ones. Union military commanders in the South were responsible for administering the trade licenses and trying to control the black market in Southern cotton, as well as for conducting the war.
  At Holly Springs, Mississippi, Grant's Union Army supply depot, Jews were rounded up and forced to leave the city by foot. On December 20, 1862, three days after Grant's order, Confederate Major General Earl Van Dorn's Confederate Army raided Holly Springs, that prevented many Jews from potential expulsion.
context_section_description: On December 17, 1862, Grant was angered when he had received complaints by mail concerning Jewish traders in his department. The same hour, Grant issued General Order No. 11, expelling "Jews, as a class" to strengthen his earlier prohibition. Jewish persons who did not obey the order were to be arrested and forcibly removed as prisoners. John Rawlins, Grant's lawyer and Asst. Adjt. Gen., strongly warned Grant not to issue the order. Grant refused to take Rawlin's advice concerning the order and told him: "Well, they can countermand this from Washington if they like, but we will issue it anyhow."
caption: Grant's Asst. Adjt. Gen. John Rawlins strongly objected to issuing General Orders No. 11.
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