The Sequel of Appomattox, A Chronicle of the Reunion of the States | Page 8

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."
In retaliation the soldiers developed ingenious ways of annoying the

whites. Women, forced for any reason to go to headquarters, were
made to take the oath of allegiance or the "ironclad" oath before their
requests were granted; flags were fastened over doors, gates, or
sidewalks in order to irritate the recalcitrant dames and their daughters.
Confederate songs and color combinations were forbidden. In
Richmond, General Halleck ordered that no marriages be performed
unless the bride, the groom, and the officiating clergyman took the oath
of allegiance. He explained this as a measure taken to prevent "the
propagation of legitimate rebels."
The wearing of Confederate uniforms was forbidden by military order,
but by May 1865, few soldiers possessed regulation uniforms. In
Tennessee the State also imposed fines upon *wear wearers of the
uniform. In the vicinity of military posts, buttons and marks of rank
were usually ordered removed and the gray clothes dyed with some
other color. General Lee, for example, had the buttons on his coat
covered with cloth. But frequently the Federal commander, after
issuing the orders, paid no more attention to the matter and such
conflicts as arose on account of the uniform were usually caused by
officious enlisted men and the Negro troops. Whitelaw Reid relates the
following incident:
"Nothing was more touching, in all that I saw in Savannah, than the
almost painful effort of the rebels, from generals down to privates, to
conduct themselves so as to evince respect for our soldiers, and to bring
no severer punishment upon the city than it had already received. There
was a brutal scene at the hotel, where a drunken sergeant, with a pair of
tailor's shears, insisted on cutting the buttons from the uniform of an
elegant gray-headed old brigadier, who had just come in from
Johnston's army; but he bore himself modestly and very handsomely
through it. His staff was composed of fine-looking, stalwart fellows,
evidently gentlemen, who appeared intensely mortified at such
treatment. They had no clothes except their rebel uniforms, and had, as
yet, had no time to procure others, but they avoided disturbances and
submitted to what they might, with some propriety, and with the
general approval of our officers, *have resented."
The Negro troops, even at their best, were everywhere considered
offensive by the native whites. General Grant, indeed, urged that only
white troops be used to garrison the interior. But