| rdfs:comment | - The Freedom Party Guards were the paramilitary arm of the Confederate Freedom Party. They were tasked with duties such as protecting political leaders, staffing concentration and extermination camps, and carrying out extralegal activities, including the enforcement of the ban on political opposition and murdering enemies of the Featherston Administration. The Guards were well-equipped with the best weapons the Confederate States produced, such as automatic rifles, anti-barrel rockets, advanced machine guns, new-model barrels, and Barrel Busters.
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| abstract | - The Freedom Party Guards were the paramilitary arm of the Confederate Freedom Party. They were tasked with duties such as protecting political leaders, staffing concentration and extermination camps, and carrying out extralegal activities, including the enforcement of the ban on political opposition and murdering enemies of the Featherston Administration. They grew in importance through the 1920s and '30s as the armed bodyguard of Confederate President Jake Featherston, and then enjoyed extended powers as his personal troubleshooters. Following the coup attempt of Vice President Willy Knight in December 1938, the more ruffian-like Freedom Party Stalwarts lost prestige and importance to the elitist Guards. Before 1940 the Freedom Party Guards wore butternut uniforms just as the Confederate Army did, but once they became a more prominent part of the Confederacy's power structure they switched to gray uniforms to distinguish themselves from the Army. As the tide of the Second Great War began to turn against the C.S.A., Attorney General Ferdinand Koenig set aside a branch of the Justice Department to train Freedom Party Guards for combat roles, supplementing the Confederate Army with thousands of ideologically-motivated troops. While proving themselves brave and willing under fire -- at one point even halting a U.S. Army attack in Texas -- the Armed Guards did not have the extensive training that the Regular Army or even the conscripted National Army had, including leadership skills that would've been learned at the Virginia Military Institute or the Citadel. However, what they lacked in training and skill, they more than made up for in pluck and verve. In general, the Freedom Party Guards held their ground and fought to the death. In addition, as the tactical situation degenerated, the Freedom Party Guards sometimes turned their guns on retreating Confederate Army forces. The Guards were well-equipped with the best weapons the Confederate States produced, such as automatic rifles, anti-barrel rockets, advanced machine guns, new-model barrels, and Barrel Busters. To distinguish themselves from both the Army and the Freedom Party Guards operating away from the front lines, the Armed Guards wore uniforms with camouflage patterns, most prominently in shades of tan and brown, ranging from sand to mud. Some of the more famous (or infamous) Freedom Party Guards included Ben Chapman, Hiram McCullough, and Jefferson Pinkard.
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