Alcibiades DeBlanc | |
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Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court | |
In office 1877–1880 |
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Personal details | |
Born |
St. Martinville, Louisiana, U.S. |
September 16, 1821
Died | November 8, 1883 St. Martinville, Louisiana, U.S. |
(aged 62)
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse(s) | Mathilde Briant |
Children |
Derneville DeBlanc |
Residence | (1) St. Martinville, Louisiana (2) Franklin, Louisiana, U.S. |
Military service | |
Service/branch | Confederate Army |
Rank | Colonel |
Battles/wars |
Derneville DeBlanc
Gilbert DeBlanc
Adrienne DeBlanc
Corinne DeBlanc
Raphael DeBlanc
Daniel DeBlanc
Mathilde DeBlanc
Jean Maximilien Alcibiades Derneville DeBlanc (September 16, 1821 – November 8, 1883) was a lawyer and state legislator in Louisiana. He served as a colonel for the Confederate army during the American Civil War. Afterward, he founded the Knights of the White Camellia, a white insurgent militia that operated from 1867-69 to suppress freedmen's voting, disrupt Republican Party political organizing and try to regain political control of the state government in the 1868 election. A Congressional investigation overturned 1868 election results in Louisiana.
But DeBlanc continued to oppose the Reconstruction effort; he was influential in commanding 600 men to oppose the disputed election of Governor William Pitt Kellogg in 1874 and try to seat the Democrats. He was briefly arrested and held by U.S. Marshals. In 1876 he was appointed by Democratic governor Francis T. Nicholls as a Louisiana Supreme Court Justice after white Democrats regained political control in the state.
Jean Maximilien Alcibiades Derneville DeBlanc was born in 1821 in St. Martinville, Louisiana. He had French ancestors, whose descendants had been in Louisiana since the early colonial period.
A lawyer and former state legislator, DeBlanc enlisted June 19, 1861 at Camp Moore, Louisiana. He was captain of Company C in the Eighth Louisiana Infantry, which became attached to the Army of Northern Virginia. He was promoted to major in 1862 and then lieutenant colonel at Fredericksburg, Virginia on April 6, 1863. He was captured at Banks Ford May 4, 1863 and paroled at Old Capitol Prison in Washington a short time later.
He was present at the Battle of Gettysburg in July, 1863 where he assumed command of a regiment when the regiment's commander was killed. He suffered an arm wound and was promoted to the rank of colonel July 2, 1863 by President Jefferson Davis. Upon returning to Louisiana in 1864, he commanded Confederate reserve troops at Natchitoches. He surrendered to Union General Francis Herron in June 1865 and aided Herron in maintaining order in the former Confederate areas of Louisiana until Union forces arrived.