Confederate riffraff? So you knew these people personally?
I think "Confederate riffraff" is a good term for the people who would so welcome home a patriotic American soldier:
Uriah York was the son of John York of North Carolina. Uriah settled in the Pall Mall area of Fentress County, Tennessee. Uriah fought with Winfield Scott in the Mexican War at the Battle of Chapultepec. In 1863 he went north to Kentucky and joined Union forces there. He returned home after contracting the measles. Confederate forces in the area sought to capture him upon his return, but Uriah heard of their coming and hid himself and horses in a canebrake. Uriah evaded his pursuers, but contracted pneumonia from the exposure and died days later. His son, William York, married Mary Brooks and gave birth to Alvin C. York, the WWI hero and greatest infantryman this country has known.
I'm glad that Alvin got a more positive reception home. We can thank the defeat of the rebellion for that.
If the triumph of Lincoln and the Union was a great day for all Americans, it was even greater for the large number of Unionists in Tennessee who were forever liberated from the tyranny of the pro-slavery power.