Remove ads

This Mighty Scourge of War: A Reconstruction-Era Quest

Reader mode
Yeah, Sherman wasn't an abolitionist going into the war and it's probably fair to call him Rather Racist. He caught some flak from Radical Republicans who thought he was too racist and also too sympathetic to the Rebs (pretty funny considering how the South saw him). Special Order No. 15 was probably the result of some personal growth and interactions with freedmen, along with practical concerns, but he'd still end up opposing Reconstruction after the war. Privately at least - when President Johnson asked him to push back against it in public he told him to fuck off.

But once Reconstruction was over he'd move back the other way - near the end of his life he wrote this article, the main thrust of which is basically 'the Constitution says that they have a right to vote, and if you don't let them exercise that right we'll come back down there and kill the shit out of you pricks'.

Otherwise, so sure as there is a God in Heaven, you will have another war, more cruel than the last, when the torch and dagger will take the place of the muskets of well-ordered battalions.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

So yeah. A complex guy.

Looking back on the condition of facts in 1861, we are simply amazed that such things could be. I well remember when the merit of an army officer was measured in the inverse ratio of the distance of his birthplace from Fairfax Court House, and when Lieut. Braxton Bragg, in 1840, at Governor's Island, New York Harbor, under orders for the Florida war, asked leave to go by land instead of by sailing vessel to visit en route and at his own expense his old, sick father, premised his written application thus : " I was not lucky enough to be born in Virginia, but I was born in a county of North Carolina, bordering on Virginia — and therefore I ask leave to proceed by land to Florida, etc., etc." Of course, he got prompt orders to embark at once with the first batch of recruits by sea to St. Augustine.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
[X] Speak directly to the people. Try to calm the situation and convince them not to resort to violence in Lincoln's name.
 
[X] Speak directly to the people. Try to calm the situation and convince them not to resort to violence in Lincoln's name.
 
[X] There is no choice but to recall the Army of the Potomac from Virginia to restore order in the city.

At this point only the Army of The Republic can be trusted to restore both Order and Justice to America against the C*nfederate. I have no ulterior motives
 
[X]Take direct command of Federal forces in the District of Columbia to search for the conspirators
 
[X] Speak directly to the people. Try to calm the situation and convince them not to resort to violence in Lincoln's name.
Its important that we maintain support in congress, reconstruction will be violent no matter what and capturing the conspirators wont dramatically change this, heck it might justify making it longer. We are gonna have to deal with racist insurgents so maintaining political capital both in the south and in Washington is key, reconstruction failed partly because congress gave up.
 
[X]Take direct command of Federal forces in the District of Columbia to search for the conspirators

Yee-haw!
 
[X] Speak directly to the people. Try to calm the situation and convince them not to resort to violence in Lincoln's name.

I think Lambert-ing it up is not the right choice here. Better to keep things calm.
 
[X] Speak directly to the people. Try to calm the situation and convince them not to resort to violence in Lincoln's name.
 
[X]Take direct command of Federal forces in the District of Columbia to search for the conspirators
 
[X] Speak directly to the people. Try to calm the situation and convince them not to resort to violence in Lincoln's name.
 
Remove ads
Vote closed
  • Voting
    • Scheduled vote count started by Kirook on Sep 16, 2023 at 9:22 AM, finished with 62 posts and 59 votes.
    Click to expand...
     
  • Voting
    • Remove ads
    Chapter 2: The Day of Four Presidents
  • Threadmarks
    • Washington, D.C.

    April 15, 1865

    2:43 AM

    In some ways, the hastily-ascended President Foster had an unusually easy time quelling the riots in Washington. After all, the people's ire was directed not against the government of the Union, but against those who had sought to destroy it. When it became clear that there was a man ready to take command and hunt down the enemies of the Republic—a man known as a close ally of the martyr Lincoln, to boot—the Wide Awakes and Rail Maulers gladly acquiesced to be deputized, as the D.C. garrison was deployed in an all-hands manhunt for John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators.

    Then came the hard part.

    Though the upwelling of mass anger had been directed, it had not fully abated, and an atmosphere of paranoia prevailed throughout the city. Many wondered who the next victim of the slavers' plot would be—or whether they would be falsely identified as abettors of that plot themselves. (And, indeed, several prominent Copperhead figures were turned in by their neighbors to federal authorities on suspicion of treason, or tarred and feathered by zealous Wide Awakes.)

    But in the end, the decisive action of President Foster made all the difference. The first of Booth's band to fall was George Azterodt, the killer of Vice President Johnson, who had required a dose of "liquid courage" to embolden him to go through with the deed, and who consequently had dulled the sensory and mental faculties necessary to deflect suspicion and evade the authorities. With alcohol and the Pinkerton Detective Agency loosening his tongue, he was quick to start naming names: besides himself and Booth, he identified Lewis Powell, David Herold, John and Mary Surratt, Michael O'Laughlen, and Samuel Arnold as having played a role in the assassinations.

    On hearing this, the President set off at once with an escort of soldiers and Wide Awakes to the Maryland boarding house owned by the Surratt family, where he hoped to capture many or even all of the conspirators at a single stroke, in much the same way that they had attempted to undo the Union. As strategic moves went, it was well-chosen, particularly for a man with little military experience…but not perfect, for a cornered animal could still bite, and would often bite the hardest of all.

    The first part of the plan went off without a hitch. The President and his men arrived at the boarding house quickly, surrounding it with several of the conspirators—who had hoped only to make a brief stop there for supplies before fleeing to friendlier territory—still inside. But if they could not escape, Booth's allies were determined to take as many Union men down with them as they could—especially when Foster's presence became known. When the President demanded that the Surratts allow them to search the building, he was met with a hail of gunfire from John Surratt as well as Powell and Arnold.

    Vastly outnumbered, the conspirators could not hold out for long; and indeed, by the end of the brief but bloody skirmish, Powell had been fatally shot and Arnold forced to surrender. But in the chaos, the Suratts themselves were nowhere to be found.

    And worse, one of the last shots fired in the battle took President Foster in the leg.

    It wasn't a mortal wound, for which all present thanked their lucky stars. But it was still serious. Recovery, if indeed he did recover, would take time—and that was one commodity that was in direly short supply for the Union at that moment.

    The Federals and Wide Awakes bore the imprisoned Arnold, the corpse of Powell, and the wounded President back to Washington. But it soon became clear that while he was under treatment for his wound, Foster would be in no condition to give orders. The post of Acting President of the United States passed to Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax in what became known as the "Day of Four Presidents".

    Colfax, like Foster only a few hours earlier, was now faced with momentous decisions. But unlike Foster, it was not clear whether he had the authority to make them. On the one hand, the incapacitation of the President had not removed the need for clear leadership in a crucial time for the nation; to the contrary, it had only increased it. But on the other, should Foster recover, overusing the authority of the Acting Presidency might be seen as an overreach—or even an attempted coup—on the part of Colfax.

    THE STATE OF THE NATION:

    National stability is critical.
    The government's legitimacy is middling.
    The capital is on edge.
    The mood of the War Democrats is angry.
    The mood of the Liberal Republicans is infuriated.
    The mood of the Radical Republicans is infuriated.
    There are four major Confederate armies remaining in the field.
    The status of Reconstruction is undetermined.
    The intensity of conflict on the frontier is high.
    Of the assassins of Lincoln and his trusted subordinates, one has been killed, two have been captured, and the rest have gone to ground.

    The situation is improving, but the wound received by President Foster has put the government in a precarious position. Colfax must decide what the proper balance is between continuing the momentum towards stabilizing the government and avoiding a constitutional crisis when Foster is ready to retake command. Note, however, that it is unclear how long his treatment will take—it could be a matter of days, weeks, or months…

    What is to be done?
    Take command solely for the purposes of hunting down the remaining conspirators.
    Take command and focus on re-establishing contact with the army, putting a subordinate in charge of the manhunt.
    		Take command and assume the full duties of the President of the United States.
    This will ensure that government legitimacy is maintained and that the conspirators are pursued, but until Foster reassumes the Presidency it will leave the military with no one in overall command.This will ensure the continued loyalty and effectiveness of the armed forces, but with authority over the search being devolved from Colfax's direct command, some of the conspirators may escape to the South.
    This will both ensure a clear chain of command during Foster's convalescence in case the Confederate remnants rally or war breaks out on the frontier and keep up the momentum against the conspirators, but may provoke a crisis depending on your actions while in power.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Take command solely for the purposes of hunting down the remaining conspirators.
     
    [X] Take command and focus on re-establishing contact with the army, putting a subordinate in charge of the manhunt.
     
    [X]Take command and focus on re-establishing contact with the army, putting a subordinate in charge of the manhunt.

    We got enough of the conspirators. As far as I'm concerned, there's no reason to create problems for ourselves to chase after the leftovers
     
    [X] Take command and focus on re-establishing contact with the army, putting a subordinate in charge of the manhunt.

    It's okay if some of the conspirators escape south, we've got a good start and need to focus on the war effort now.
     
    [X]Take command and focus on re-establishing contact with the army, putting a subordinate in charge of the manhunt.
     
    [X] Take command and focus on re-establishing contact with the army, putting a subordinate in charge of the manhunt.
     
    [X] Take command and focus on re-establishing contact with the army, putting a subordinate in charge of the manhunt
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top