Civil War Aftermath & Reconstruction

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The Bloody Shirt: A Long Surrender: The Guerrilla War After the Civil War
"The Bloody Shirt" by Stephen Budiansky: The title refers to a small footnote to the war of violence that was waged in the American South after the Civil War. The terror started almost as soon as the Civil War ended in 1865; lasting until 1876, when the last of the governments of the Southern states freely elected through universal manhood suffrage was put down in a campaign of violence - thereby ending Reconstruction. --- March 9, 1871: a band of 120 men on horseback, heavily armed, encircled the house of one George R. Ross in Monroe County. Allen P. Huggins, a Northern man who had settled in Mississippi after the war, was staying the night there...
by nytimes :: 2008-01-31 :: Confederate - Confederacy - American Civil War

This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust
The Civil War changed the way Americans look at death. In late 1862 Mathew Brady exhibited in his New York studio photos of the Antietam battlefield taken after the battle that claimed the lives of over 6,000 men. Photography was in its infancy, and since most Americans had never seen anything but drawings of war, the exhibition created a sensation. People who clamored to see the pictures were amazed even though the images showed none of the fighting, only its aftermath: burial parties, and most disturbing in this context, a picnickers relaxing at the scene where thousands had just died.
by newsweek :: 2008-01-13 :: Civil War Books

Marketing the South: Commercial mythmaking
The historical, competitive, and ideological factors that structure the patterns of commercial mythmaking remain mostly unexplored and undertheorized. Now, a study investigates these interrelationships by a comparative analysis of two prominent New South mythmakers: editors of magazines about the South (who are seeking to ideologically reconstruct the historical legacy of antebellum, confederate), and segregationist South in ways that serve commercial agendas. "A countervailing system of meanings has been culturally propagated through the ceaseless efforts ... to place a redeeming light on the region's historical heritage," say Craig Thompson and Kelly Tian.
by physorg :: 2008-01-09 :: Confederate - Confederacy - American Civil War

Reconstruction and African American political power
The period of U.S. history known as Reconstruction, following the Civil War, lasted 1865-1877. During this period, former slaves in the South made some of the most far-reaching gains that African Americans have seen in U.S. history. The Civil War, 1861-1865, was a profound social revolution. Although the victory of the North resulted in the end of slavery, that was not the stated aim of either President Abraham Lincoln, who refused to end slavery, assuring all slave owners who cooperated with the federal government that they would maintain "their property." His decision to issue the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation was a military decision.
by socialismandliberation :: 2007-02-06 :: Black - Coloured troops - American Civil War

South's efforts to attract 'desirable' immigrants after Civil War
Have attitudes changed since the Civil War? It's a question raised by a book two professors have written about proposed immigration to the South during Reconstruction. The book, "Immigration in the American South" documents unsuccessful efforts to draw the most "desirable" immigrants flooding the U.S. southward 1864-1895. After the Civil War, the South was defining itself. Prospects raised questions of "Who are we?" and "What kind of South do we build?" With the loss of about 3.5 million slave laborers, first thoughts were of drawing immigrant agricultural workers.
by heraldonline :: 2006-11-30 :: Confederate - Confederacy - American Civil War

Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War
Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War by Nicholas Lemann tells a story we keep trying to forget: White Southerners used every kind of violence to destroy Reconstruction after the Civil War. Beguiled by Gone With the Wind, many white Americans still imagine Reconstruction as a crime against the white South. It is good to have this stubborn fable of Reconstruction refuted by a respected writer. Redemption is the other kind of history that sells: the exposé, a book turned wrong side out, discovering that the people of the past were as driven by violence, selfishness and narrowness as we are.
by slate :: 2006-11-10 :: Civil War Aftermath & Reconstruction

American Civil War in the News is a edited review of American Civil War related news and articles, providing collection of hand-picked 1861-1865 era history.