The Sequel of Appomattox: A Chronicle of the Reunion of the StatesFleming, Walter L. (Walter Lynwood)
History
The Sequel of Appomattox: A Chronicle of the Reunion of the States
Fleming, Walter L. (Walter Lynwood)
Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877); United States -- History -- 1865-1898
General Lee's good example influenced many. Commercial enterprises were
willing to pay for the use of his name and reputation, but he wished to
farm and could get no opportunity. "They are offering my father
everything," his daughter said, "except the only thing he will accept, a
place to earn honest bread while engaged in some useful work." This
remark led to an offer of the presidency of Washington College, now
Washington and Lee University, which he accepted. "I have a self-imposed
task which I must accomplish," he said, "I have led the young men of the
South in battle; I have seen many of them fall under my standard. I
shall devote my life now to training young men to do their duty in
life."
The condition of honest folk was still further troubled by a general
spirit of lawlessness in many regions. Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas,
and Louisiana recognized the "Union" state government, but the coming of
peace brought legal anarchy to the other States of the Confederacy. The
Confederate state and local governments were abolished as the armies of
occupation spread over the South, and for a period of four or six months
there was no government except that exercised by the commanders of the
military garrisons left behind when the armies marched away. Even before
the surrender the local governments were unable to make their authority
respected, and soon after the war ended parts of the country became
infested with outlaws, pretend treasury agents, horse thieves, cattle
thieves, and deserters. Away from the military posts only lynch law
could cope with these elements of disorder. With the aid of the army in
the more settled regions, and by extra-legal means elsewhere, the
outlaws, thieves, cotton burners, and house burners were brought
somewhat under control even before the state governments were
reorganized, though the embers of lawlessness continued to smolder.
The relations between the Federal soldiers stationed in the principal
towns and the native white population were not, on the whole, so bad as
might have been expected. If the commanding officer were well disposed,
there was little danger of friction, though sometimes his troops got out
of hand. The regulars had a better reputation than the volunteers. The
Confederate soldiers were surfeited with fighting, but the
"stay-at-home" element was often a cause of trouble. The problem of
social relations between the conquerors and the conquered was
troublesome. The men might get along well together, but the women would
have nothing do with the "Yankees" and ill feeling arose because of
their antipathy. Carl Schurz reported that "the soldier of the Union is
looked upon as a stranger, an intruder, as the 'Yankee,' the 'enemy.'...
The existence and intensity of this aversion is too well known to those
who have served or are serving in the South to require proof."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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