outright war between the state militia and the white rifle clubs was avoided only by the complete surrender of one of the belligerents, though tensions escalated in the following months leading to a december riot in vicksburg, mississippi resulting in the deaths of two whites and thirty-five black people. reaction to this riot was mixed, with the local democrats upset at the influx of federal troops that followed, and the northern press expressing outrage: "once more, as always, it is the negroes that are slaughtered while the whites escape."