Confederate Veterans' Brigades

In 1941 President Jake Featherston created the Confederate Veterans' Brigades. These were manned initially by volunteers who were veterans of the Great War and who were overage or partially disabled and so not fit for the regular |Army. Featherston's intention was to free up younger men for regular service.

The assignments of the Brigades included patrolling the dams of the Tennessee Valley to guard against sabotage and to guard prison camps containing Negroes supposedly taken in arms against the |C.S.A. The latter was misleading as the mass murders known as "population reductions" had already began and Brigade personnel were expected to participate.

Shortly after the announcement of the formation of the Brigades, Hipolito Rodriguez volunteered. He was motivated both by patriotism and the fact that wages he would be paid along with the allowance his wife would receive would be greater than what he would get if he remained on his farm.