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After the war, Nash apparently spent some time in [[New Orleans]] before his arrival in Grant Parish. He directed the events in Colfax on Easter, April 13, 1873, to regain control of the courthouse, an event known as the "Colfax Riot" on the southern historical marker, but called the "Colfax massacre" or "The Day Freedom Died" by Union sympathizers or northerners concerned with [[civil rights]] for African American.<ref>''A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography,'' in its article on Nash, uses these sources: Milton Dunn, Christopher Columbus Nash (1925), Mabel Fletcher Harrison and Lavinia McGuire McNeely, Grant Parish, Louisiana: A History (1969), and Manie White Johnson, "The Colfax Riot of April, 1873," ''Louisiana Historical Quarterly,'' Vol. XIII (1930).</ref> The riot occurred when [[Republican Party|Republican]] [[Governor]] William Pitt Kellogg refused to recognize Nash as the legitimate "sheriff" of Grant Parish. Nearly seventy to one hundred blacks were killed in the riot. A white man named Cruikshank was arrested and indicted for violating the [[Fourteenth Amendment]] to the [[United States Constitution]]. Ultimately, the [[United States Supreme Court[[ under Chief Justice Morrison Waite heard the case, ''United States v. Cruikshank.'' The court held there are two kinds of citizenship: state and national. The Fourteenth Amendment, said the court, does not protect against [[murder]] and other crimes, in effect stripping the Fourteenth Amendment and the Enforcement Acts from authority in Louisiana. The white supremacists felt they had precedent for the repent-less killing of African Americans. Home rule hence returned to the American South, a process completed by 1877, with removal of the last of the federal troops from Louisiana and [[South Carolina]] on order of [[U.S. President]] [[Rutherford B. Hayes]].

After the war, Nash apparently spent some time in [[New Orleans]] before his arrival in Grant Parish. He directed the events in Colfax on Easter, April 13, 1873, to regain control of the courthouse, an event known as the "Colfax Riot" on the southern historical marker, but called the "Colfax massacre" or "The Day Freedom Died" by Union sympathizers or northerners concerned with [[civil rights]] for African American.<ref>''A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography,'' in its article on Nash, uses these sources: Milton Dunn, Christopher Columbus Nash (1925), Mabel Fletcher Harrison and Lavinia McGuire McNeely, Grant Parish, Louisiana: A History (1969), and Manie White Johnson, "The Colfax Riot of April, 1873," ''Louisiana Historical Quarterly,'' Vol. XIII (1930).</ref> The riot occurred when [[Republican Party|Republican]] [[Governor]] William Pitt Kellogg refused to recognize Nash as the legitimate "sheriff" of Grant Parish. Nearly seventy to one hundred blacks were killed in the riot. A white man named Cruikshank was arrested and indicted for violating the [[Fourteenth Amendment]] to the [[United States Constitution]]. Ultimately, the [[United States Supreme Court[[ under Chief Justice Morrison Waite heard the case, ''United States v. Cruikshank.'' The court held there are two kinds of citizenship: state and national. The Fourteenth Amendment, said the court, does not protect against [[murder]] and other crimes, in effect stripping the Fourteenth Amendment and the Enforcement Acts from authority in Louisiana. The white supremacists felt they had precedent for the repent-less killing of African Americans. Home rule hence returned to the American South, a process completed by 1877, with removal of the last of the federal troops from Louisiana and [[South Carolina]] on order of [[U.S. President]] [[Rutherford B. Hayes]].

After the Colfax Riot, Nash led companies of white militias in the formation of the first unit of the White League, which defined its purpose as the defense of a "hereditary civilization and [[Christianity]] menaced by a stupid Africanization."<ref>Adolph Reed, Jr., "The battle of Liberty Monument - [[New Orleans]], Louisiana white supremacist statue"|publisher=''The Progressive,'' June 1993.</ref> The league intimidated, lynched, performed fraud against, and killed black voters. Eventually, key members of the Colfax Riot were indicted for killing and setting fire to black men.<ref>James K. Hogue, ''The Battle of Colfax: Paramilitarism and Counterrevolution in Louisiana,'' June 2006, p. 21.</ref>  

After the Colfax Riot, Nash led companies of white militias in the formation of the first unit of the White League, which defined its purpose as the defense of a "hereditary civilization and [[Christianity]] menaced by a stupid Africanization."<ref>Adolph Reed, Jr., "The battle of Liberty Monument - [[New Orleans]], Louisiana white supremacist statue," ''The Progressive,'' June 1993.</ref> The league intimidated, lynched, performed fraud against, and killed black voters. Eventually, key members of the Colfax Riot were indicted for killing and setting fire to black men.<ref>James K. Hogue, ''The Battle of Colfax: Paramilitarism and Counterrevolution in Louisiana,'' June 2006, p. 21.</ref>  

Nash died at the age of eighty-three and is interred at the historic American Cemetery in [[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]], Louisiana.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/13231649/christopher-columbus-nash|title=Capt. Christopher Columbus Nash|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=April 27, 2020}}</ref>

Nash died at the age of eighty-three and is interred at the historic American Cemetery in [[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]], Louisiana.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/13231649/christopher-columbus-nash|title=Capt. Christopher Columbus Nash|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=April 27, 2020}}</ref>