Rejecting the lenient reconstruction measures initiated by Presidents Abraham
Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, the U.S.
Congress, under the control of the Radical
Republicans, passed the punitive Reconstruction Act of 1867 on March 7, over
Johnson's veto. This act sought to rebuild
the governments of the Southern states in
the Northern mold and ensure the civil
rights of the freed blacks. The members of
the existing state governments in the South,
made up of the leaders of the Confederacy,
were removed, and the states were placed
under the military rule of the U.S. Army.
No one who had supported the Confederate government was allowed to vote or hold
political office. As a result, the state governments were controlled by scalawags and
carpetbaggers and the military rulers of the
Radical Republican Congress.
The South was divided into five military
districts, with a U.S. Army general in
charge of each. Virginia, the first district, was
commanded by Gen. John Schofield. The
second district brought North and South
Carolina under the command of Gen. Daniel
E. Sickles, and Gen. John Pope oversaw the
reconstruction of Georgia, Alabama, and
Florida in the third district. The fourth district, comprising Mississippi and Arkansas,
was commanded by Gen. Edward Ord, and
in the fifth, Texas and Louisiana came under
the control of Gen. Philip H. Sheridan. Some
200,000 U.S. soldiers were stationed
throughout the South to preserve order and
carry out the dictates of Congress.