The Louisiana Scalawags: Politics, Race, and Terrorism During the Civil War and ReconstructionDuring the Civil War and Reconstruction, the pejorative term scalawag referred to white southerners loyal to the Republican Party. With the onset of the federal occupation of New Orleans in 1862, scalawags challenged the restoration of the antebellum political and social orders. Derided as opportunists, uneducated poor white trash, Union sympathizers, and race traitors, scalawags remain largely misunderstood even today. In The Louisiana Scalawags,