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BestsellerE-book
Author Downs, Gregory P.

Title After Appomattox : military occupation and the ends of war / Gregory P. Downs.

Publication Info. Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2015.

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (ix, 342 pages) : illustrations, maps
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Summary "The Civil War did not end at Appomattox Court House. Nor did it end at the surrenders that followed in North Carolina, Texas, and Indian Country. The Civil War dragged on for at least five years after Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in April 1865. In the first large-scale examination of the post-Civil War occupation, this book offers a rethinking of Reconstruction, the end of the Civil War, and the United States' history of occupation. The Civil War could not end, because slavery had not yet ended. Freedpeople held in bondage throughout the South taught soldiers that it would take military force to crush the institution of slavery. To create reliable rights on the ground and to stave off planters' efforts to restore their power, the United States launched an expansive, aggressive, little-understood occupation of the rebel states, granting the Army power to overturn laws, appoint new officials, conduct military trials, and ignore writs of habeas corpus. Yet relying on occupation posed dilemmas for the United States. Isolated in small outposts, the Army could regulate only what it could see. In large no-man's lands, a series of insurgencies and partisan conflicts arose; much of the South fell into near-anarchy. Maintaining an occupation created political problems as well, as northern voters urged Congress to cut spending and send troops home. This book describes a Civil War that could not quite end, a peace that could not quite be achieved, and a resolution that continues to shape American life"--Provided by publisher.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents Introduction: The war that could not end -- After surrender -- Emancipation at gunpoint -- The challenge of civil government -- Authority without arms -- The war in Washington -- A false peace -- Enfranchisement by martial law -- Between bullets and ballots -- The perils of peace -- Conclusion: A government without force -- Appendixes.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject American Civil War (United States : 1861-1865)
Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)
Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)
Southern States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1950.
Southern States.
Politics and government.
Chronological Term 1865-1950
Subject United States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1877.
United States.
Chronological Term 1865-1877
Subject United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Occupied territories.
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Peace.
Military occupation -- Social aspects -- Southern States -- History -- 19th century.
Military occupation -- Social aspects.
History.
Chronological Term 19th century
Subject Military occupation.
Civil-military relations -- Southern States -- History -- 19th century.
Civil-military relations.
Freed persons -- Southern States -- History -- 19th century.
Freed persons.
Southern States -- Race relations -- History -- 1865-1950.
Race relations.
Social conflict -- Southern States -- History -- 19th century.
Social conflict.
Chronological Term 1800-1950
Genre/Form Electronic books.
History.
Other Form: Print version: Downs, Gregory P. After Appomattox 9780674743984 (DLC) 2014038048 (OCoLC)893709487
ISBN 9780674426146 electronic book
0674426142 electronic book
9780674743984
0674743989