This is the first of a new series of posts…

What some in the North called "Reconstruction" meant something completely different to the people of the South. 

During the period of 1865 until the late 1870's, the South was divided into military districts, occupied by United States Army troops and given U.S. Federal Government appointed military governors. Confederate veterans were not allowed to vote nor wear any part of their Confederate uniforms, including the buttons in public. Although Northern contention was that the Southern states remained part of the United States, they charged that the states lacked loyal governments. 

 The Northern federal government needed to invent mechanisms to erect what they called “loyal state governments”.   Men of honor in the South would fight these continually changing and increasing terms.  Since the strong willed, honorable Southern leaders could not be controlled by the Northern Republicans, they simple would purge the leaders, unseat them, and either appoint or cause a re-election of officials to be conducted. 

 They would not allow due process and democratic rule.  They wanted puppet governments to follow blindly whatever notion they had.  The Southern economy and society were decimated. The Southern land lay in ruins from the invading armies. Entire cities were destroyed; all food and supplies were, in large areas, destroyed.

~Robert~

Via John K. McNeill SCV Camp #674  
A Southern View of History
The War for Southern Independence

Photo:  Charleston, South Carolina after the Civil War.   We seldom think of such scenes as being relevent to the US, but the South was at least as destroyed after the Civil War as Germany was after WWII.   Sherman's march to the sea in Georgia was famous for its devastation, but in their letters, many of Sherman's soldiers say they were particularly ferocious in South Carolina.