Editing Wide Awakes (section)

==Southern reaction==
In 1860, [[Texas]] Senator [[Louis Wigfall]] alleged that Wide Awakes were behind [[Texas slave insurrection panic of 1860|a wave of arson and vandalism]], opposing "one–half million of men uniformed and drilled, and the purpose of their organization to sweep the country in which I live with fire and sword."<ref name=":0" /> The Wide Awakes represented the region's minority of slave and land owners' greatest fear: an oppressive force bent on marching down, liberating the slaves, stealing their land, and pushing aside their way of life. Their outfits and equipment only further incited that fear with beliefs that "they parade at midnight, carry rails to break open our doors, torches to fire our dwellings, and beneath their long black capes, the knife to cut our throats."<ref>Richmond Enquirer – September 28, 1860 (Valley of the Shadow)</ref><ref>Louis T. Wigfall – December 6, 1860 (Great Debates in American History)</ref>

On October 25, 1858, Senator Seward of New York stated to an excited crowd that "a revolution has begun" and alluded to Wide Awakes as "forces with which to recover back again all the fields... and to confound and overthrow, by one decisive blow, the betrayers of the constitution and freedom forever." To the South, the Wide Awakes and the North would be content only when the South was fully dominated.

The South recognized the need for their own Wide Awakes and thus started a movement to create "a counteracting organization in the South,"<ref>Marshal Texan Republican – November 17, 1860 (Valley of the Shadow)</ref> dubbed the "[[Minutemen (Missouri Secessionist Paramilitaries)|Minutemen]]," after the [[Minutemen|American Revolution militia of the same name]]. It would no longer entertain the "abhorrence of the rapine, murder, insurrection, pollution and incendiarism which have been plotted by the deluded and vicious of the North, against the chastity, law and prosperity of innocent and unoffending citizens of the South."<ref>Indiana Courier – October 27, 1860 (Valley of the Shadow)</ref> The Minutemen were expected "to form an armed body of men... whose duty is to arm, equip and drill, and be ready for any emergency that may arise in the present perilous position of Southern States."<ref name="ReferenceA" /> The fear of the Wide Awakes resulted in Minutemen companies forming all over the South. Like their enemy, they too held torch rallies and wore their own uniforms, complete with an official badge of "a blue rosette... to be worn upon the side of the hat."<ref name="ReferenceA" />

In [[Washington, D.C.]], and [[Baltimore|Baltimore, Maryland]], opponents of the Wide Awakes formed the National Volunteers, which were involved in the [[Baltimore riot of 1861]] that produced the first deaths of the [[American Civil War]]. In this April 1861 incident, [[Copperhead (politics)|Copperhead anti-war Democrats]] mobilized the National Volunteers to attack the Massachusetts and Pennsylvania state militias as they passed through the city en route to Washington, D.C..<ref name=":0" />