THE SOUTHERN COMMANDERS
The President on March 13 detailed, and General Grant, in general orders,
announced the appointment of the following general officers as those to whom is delegated
the high and responsible duty of enforcing the new military bill for the government of the
insurrectionary States:Virginia General John
M. Schofield
North and South Carolina General Daniel E. Sickles
Georgia, Florida, and Alabama General John Pope
Mississippi and Arkansas General E. O. C. Ord
Louisiana and Texas General Philip H. Sheridan
Kentucky and Tennessee General George H. Thomas
A bill under which these appointments
have been made was passed on February 29, and is the most important measure adopted by the
Thirty-ninth Congress. Its passage marked the abandonment of the reconstruction schemes
begun by the President during the recess of 1865, and in part adopted by Congress under
protest. Its passage decided that those measures had signally failed, after being
deliberately and thoroughly tested; and the new bill provides another and wiser, and, it
is to be hoped, a more successful plan. By it the South is again placed in the condition
in which it lay on the surrender of Lee, and work of reconstruction is begun anew.
The bill decides the duties of the new
commanders to be: 1st, the protection of all persons in their rights of person
and property; 2d, the suppression of insurrection, disorder, and violence; and 3d, the
trial and punishment of all disturbers of the public peace, the officers being authorized
to employ civil tribunals or military courts or committees for this purpose at their
option. State and civil authority, when conflicting with that of the military power, is
declared null and void; and martial law is virtually proclaimed, accompanied by such
restrictions as leaves it to the people of the South to decide by their behavior how
severe and odious, or benign and prosperous, the military reign shall be.
We give in this issue an elegant picture
showing the new commanders, grouped and on horseback, with General Grant, who, as
Commander-in-Chief of the Army, is virtually the ruler of the Southern States of the
Union, in the centre. The likenesses are accurate, and the picture is well worthy of
careful preservation.
THE NEW MILITARY COMMANDERS
April 6, 1867 pages 216-217
Articles Related to Military Reconstruction:
News Items
January 19, 1867, page 35
Impeachment
January 26, 1867, page 50
Congress and
Impeachment
February 16, 1867, page 98
The Probability of
Impeachment
February 23, 1867, page 114
The Louisiana Bill
March 2, 1867, page 130
Reconstruction
March 9, 1867, page 146
The Thirty-Ninth
Congress
March 9, 1867, page 146
The Veto of the Reconstruction Bill
March 16, 1867, page 162
The Fortieth Congress
March 30, 1867, page 195
The Fortieth Congress
April 6, 1867, page 211
Sprats and Vetoes
April 6, 1867, page 210
Adjournment of Congress
April 13, 1867, page 226
Prometheus Bound
March 2, 1867, page 137
The Result
March 30, 1867, page 194
The Southern Commanders
April 6, 1867, page 218
The Debate upon Impeachment
March 23, 1867, page 178
We Accept the Situation (cartoon)
April 13, 1867, page 240
The Big Thing (cartoon)
April 20, 1867, page 256
The End of Impeachment
June 22, 1867, page 386
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