In United States history, scalawag was a moniker for a southern whites who supported Reconstruction following the Civil War.
Scalawags formed a winning coalition with freedmen (blacks who were former slaves) and Northern newcomers (pejoratively labelled carpetbaggers) to take control of their state and local governments. The coalition controlled for varying lengths of time during 1866-1877 every ex-Confederate state except Virginia. Two of the most prominent scalawags were General James Longstreet (Robert E. Lee's top general, after Stonewall Jackson), and Joseph E. Brown, the wartime governor of Georgia. Those who had not supported the Confederacy were eligible to take the "ironclad oath," as required by the Reconstruction laws in 1867 to vote or hold office. In the 1870s, many switched from the Republican Party to the conservative-Democrat coalition, who called themselves Redeemers. Conservative Democrats replaced all Southern state Republican regimes by 1877.
