V. THE RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD.

BRIGANDAGE IN MISSOURI, 1866-RIOTS AT NORFOLK, VA., 1866-THE MEMPHIS, TENN., RIOTS, 1866-FENIAN INVASION OF CANADA, 1866-RIOTS AT MOBILE, ALA., 1867-RIOT AT FRANKLIN, TENN., 1867-THE NASHVILLE, TENN., ELECTION, 1867-THE KU-KLUXKLAN, 1866-1872-DISORDERS IN GULF STATES, 1868-LAWLESSNESS IN ARKANSAS, 1868RIOTS AT CAMILLA, GA., 1868-LAWLESSNESS IN TEXAS, 1868-1870-RIOT AT MILLICAN, TEX., 1868-RIOT AT MOBILE, ALA., 1869-RIOT AT UNIONVILLE, S. C., 1871.

The first step toward the restoration of the seceding States was a proclamation by President Lincoln of December 8, 1863," in which, was promised full pardon with restoration of rights of property (excepting slaves) to such as should take and maintain an oath of allegiance, etc., and providing that when there shall be in any such State a number equal to 10 per cent of the Presidential vote of 1860 who shall have taken such oath, these people shall be authorized to reestablish a republican form of government, which shall be recognized as the true and legal government of the State. Under this authorization Louisiana and Arkansas had organized governments in 1864 and Tennessee in 1865, which had been recognized, while provisional governors had been appointed by the President for all the other States, with instructions to call conventions to formulate new constitutions and take other formal measures for restoring these States to their constitutional relations to the General Government. Congress, however, did not approve this method of reconstruction, and, after long debate struction period, throughout the year 1866 and up to the close of the

The recon

1866-1870. Thirty-ninth Congress, developed another plan which found expression in the act of March 2, 1867, and the supplementary acts of March 23 and July 19, each of which was opposed by the President and passed over his veto. These acts declared that no legal governments existed in the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Arkansas, and Texas, and divided them into five military districts, each under the command of a general officer of the Army, with sufficient military force to enforce his authority. It was made the duty of these commanders to make a registration of legal voters, these to elect delegates to a convention which should frame a new constitution, which constitutions should be approved by Congress; after which, the State, having ratified the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution, should

be restored to its former relations, and its Senators and Representatives entitled to admission to Congress. The conditions of these acts were complied with in 1868 by North and South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas; by Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas in 1869, and by Georgia in 1870, and thus reconstruction was fully accomplished.

The period of time during which this scheme of rehabilitation was in progress was not unnaturally one of great disorder throughout the section lately engaged in insurrection, requiring the constant presence of troops and the frequent necessity of employing them for the preservation of order. There were many reasons for this, not altogether political. The return to the pursuits of ordinary life of several hundred thousand men from the armies, many of them turbulent in disposition, disinclined to labor, and impatient of control, introduced an element of discord not easily suppressed. In several of the border States these restless men banded together for purposes of mischief and plunder, roamed the country, riding at breakneck speed through the

Brigandage in Missouri, 1866.

streets, swaggering about the hotels and public places with revolvers in their belts, overawing the police, and setting the laws at defiance. These men robbed travelers, burned the huts of colored people, and were in fact brigands. To such an extent was this carried on in Missouri that the governor, finding the civil authorities powerless to maintain the peace, ordered out the entire militia of the State-34 companies and hunted these marauders from one hiding place to another until they were finally forced to leave the State. But a more prolific source of disturbance was the intense feeling toward the colored people, many of whom perhaps allowed their freedom to take unnecessary prominence in the presence of their former owners.

Of this character were the riots at Norfolk, Va., in the spring of 1866. The close of the war had left some 700 or 800 colored soldiers at Norfolk, and many of these had availed themselves of the privilege granted by the Government to honorably discharged soldiers of purchasing the arms they had carried during the war.a It was not shown during the subsequent investigation that these men had any organi

Riots at Norfolk, Va., April 16-18, 1866.

zation, or that there was any mutual understanding as to their rights to self-protection, beyond the natural bonds of race sympathy. On the other hand, it was shown that the surviving members of companies that had served in the Confederate armies had maintained their organization, although there was no evidence that these organizations proposed to resist any laws of the United States or that they entertained any insurrectionary plans. Norfolk possessed at the time a floating population of disorderly and abandoned characters, and between these and the colored

a General Orders, No. 101, War Department, 1865.

population there was some considerable enmity, though there was abundant proof that the relations between the colored people and their old employers and owners were eminently satisfactory. On the 16th of April the colored population of Norfolk and Portsmouth celebrated the passage of the civil rights bill by a procession and public speaking at grounds near town. The commanding officer of the United States troops at Norfolk, Captain Stanhope, Twelfth Infantry, witnessed the procession, which passed off peaceably, and had returned to his quarters when firing commenced at the grounds where the speaking was going on. He then ordered out a company, and proceeding to the grounds, where he found a white man had been killed, disarmed every negro, dispersed the meeting, and escorted the Portsmouth delegation home. He then saw the mayor of the city, who informed him that his police force was worthless, that he could not control the disturbance, and asked for Federal aid. This was about noon. During the afternoon there were rumors that the white people were organizing, and that they would attack the negroes as soon as darkness would permit. Captain Stanhope disposed his troops to best advantage and awaited. the progress of events. There was desultory but constant firing during the night, and a number of negroes were killed and wounded; bodies of men were marching the streets, numbering in the aggregate several hundred, but on the appearance of the troops they dispersed. The following day there was great excitement. Large bodies of men collected about the city, and threats were openly made of a night attack that would crush the soldiers and exterminate the negroes. The troops, who had been on duty almost constantly for thirty-six hours, were reenforced about dark by about 200 men from Fort Monroe, and but for their timely arrival there is reason for believing that a desperate riot would have occurred on the night of the 17th, as both blacks and whites had matured plans that were to culminate at that time. afterwards discovered that every colored man who had shown himself on the streets on the night of the 16th had been fired upon."

The conditions that brought about the disturbances at Norfolk and New Orleans were no different from those that existed elsewhere throughout the South during the years immediately following the close of the war. The affair at Memphis, which immediately followed that at Norfolk, was a conspicuous illustration of the intensely bitter feeling throughout the former slaveholding States toward the blacks, and particularly toward such of them as had served in the Federal armies and had thus contributed toward the suppression of the rebellion. The Third Regiment of United States Colored Artillery had

a Finding of the board of officers to inquire into the causes of the riots at Norfolk, Va., on the 16th of April, 1866. (154 V., A. G. O., 1866.) Letter of Secretary of War, January 21, 1867, in answer to H. R. resolution of December 10, 1866, calling for information relative to riots at Norfolk. (H. R. Ex. Doc. No. 72, Thirty-ninth Congress, second session.)

May 1-3, 1866.

been organized at Memphis in 1863 under the title of the First Tennessee Heavy Artillery, and had been made up of the negroes of that vicinity who had sought the protection of the Federal Government. It had been stationed at Memphis from the time of its organization and had been employed in the various police and other The Memphis riots, semi-military duties that brought its members into frequent contact with the lawless white element. Many negro soldiers had from time to time been arrested by the white police, and many whites, including policemen, had been arrested by the negro soldiers, and in both cases those arrested had not infrequently been treated with unnecessary harshness. On the 30th of April, 1866, this regiment was officially mustered out of the United States service, and the men discharged. Many of them had what they called families living at South Memphis, and having been paid off, strolled about the city on the evening of the 30th and during the 1st of May in bodies of from ten to seventy-five, gradually reached a state of intoxication, became noisy and subjects for police attention. On the night of the 1st a body of six policemen arrested two boisterous negroes and were conducting them to the station house, when they were attacked by a crowd of negroes. The police turned and fired into the crowd, wounding one; the prisoners escaped. The negroes returned the fire, wounding one of the policemen. The latter being reenforced and supported by a large crowd of citizens, proceeded to shoot, beat, and arrest every negro in sight, and this was kept up at intervals until midnight, when Ait was quelled by the appearance of a small detachment of United States troops."

On the morning of the 2d the rioting was renewed, but the scene had been transferred to South Memphis, where the negroes were most congregated. The regular troops at Memphis, after the muster out of the colored regiment, numbered less than 150, and as there was much public property to guard, but few men could be spared to aid in preserving the peace, and these devoted their efforts to keeping the discharged soldiers inside the fort and the infuriated white people out of it. On the night of the 2d a party of mounted whites rode about the suburbs, setting fire to the negro schoolhouses, churches, and dwellings, shooting, beating, and maltreating all who resisted. The civil authorities, as was fully proven in the subsequent investigation, were not only indisposed to quell the rioting, but many of them actually and actively participated in it. This continued throughout the night of the 2d and during much of the 3d, with a total result of 46 colored and 2 white persons killed; 75 wounded; 100 robberies, more or less aggravated; 91 houses and cabins, 12 schoolhouses, and 4 churches burned; individual property destroyed to the value of $100,000.'

a Telegram: General Stoneman to General Grant, May 12, 1866.

Testimony taken at Memphis May 22-June 6, 1866, before a select committee of Congress. (H. R. Report No. 101, Thirty-ninth Congress, first session; ibid, p. 36.)

On the afternoon of the 3d General Stoneman decided to assume military control of the situation and to suspend the civil power. He remarked in his testimony before the Congressional committee that he first endeavored to communicate with the mayor of the city, but was informed that he was not in a condition to be communicated with. He accordingly issued the following open letter, which was published in the evening papers and circulated by handbills:

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF TENNESSEE,

MEMPHIS, TENN., May 3, 1866.

To the mayor, city council, and all civil authorities of the county of Shelby, and city of Memphis:

GENTLEMEN: Circumstances compel the undersigned to interfere with civil affairs in the city of Memphis. It is forbidden for any person, without the authority from these headquarters, to assemble together any posse, armed or unarmed, white or colored. This does not include the police force of the city, and will not so long as they can be relied upon as preservers of the peace.

I am, gentlemen, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

GEO. STONEMAN, Major-General, Commanding.

The effect of this action was instantaneous. All the available United States troops were stationed at various points throughout the city, which was thoroughly patrolled and the smallest assemblages dispersed wherever encountered. Every officer and man was on constant duty, day and night, for more than forty-eight hours. The next morning a considerable body of troops arrived from Nashville, but their active services were not called into requisition. On the 5th General Stoneman called upon the civil authorities for information as regarded their future intentions and ability to preserve the peace, and concluded his letter as follows:

In conclusion, I have to assure you, and, through you, the people of Memphis, that if they can not govern themselves as a law-abiding and Christian community, they will be governed, and that hereafter it will be my duty and privilege to see that there are no more riotous proceedings or conduct, either on the part of whites or blacks, or city authorities.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

His honor, JOHN PARK,

Mayor of the City of Memphis.

GEO. STONEMAN, Major-General, Commanding.

Order having been restored, and the excitement consequent upon the riot having abated, military control was withdrawn and the civil authorities resumed their functions.

An attempted invasion of Canada, not dissimilar to that attempted by the Patriots of 1837, was among the historical incidents of the year 1866. The "Fenian Brotherhood," an organization of IrishAmericans having for their object and aim the independence of Ireland, had been founded in New York in 1857, but its operations had been interrupted, if not diverted, by the breaking out of the civil war.