Reconstruction: The Second Civil War

PBS American Experience ^ | 12/03 | Story by Elizabeth Deane & Patricia Garcia Rios

[baseball_fan]

NARRATOR After ten tumultuous years, Reconstruction died in 1877 in a back-room deal in Washington. The outcome of the presidential election the year before had been bitterly disputed. The two parties came to a secret compromise. Southern Democrats agreed to accept a Republican in the White House. In return, the Republicans agreed to abandon Reconstruction.

WALKER The whole Civil War and Reconstruction process had been characterized by a deep ambivalence on the part of the North. And that ambivalence by 1870s, by the late 1870s, has crystallized into, "Let's cut our losses and get out. And the best thing is to leave this to the people who know best how to handle it."

NARRATOR B.W. Marston took Marshall Twitchell's seat as state senator.

MARSTON The North won the war. In northwest Louisiana, we won Reconstruction.

NARRATOR On April 24, 1877, a crowd lined the streets of New Orleans, as the last of the federal troops stationed there marched towards the steamship that would take them away. The cheers were deafening. Someone let out a rebel yell. The retreat of the North left blacks across the South feeling betrayed and deeply in danger.

WALKER You fight a bloody war, and you set people on the road to freedom, and then when they make an effort to establish themselves, that road is pulled out from under them and they are left to the people who are their enemies.

NARRATOR Marshall Twitchell moved back to Vermont. Fitted with artificial arms, he was made a consul to Canada in 1878...

NARRATOR Fan Butler married an Englishman. She tried to keep the plantations afloat, but eventually gave up and moved to Britain in 1877.

NARRATOR John Roy Lynch managed to stay in politics for another twenty years and wrote an impassioned defense of Reconstruction.

[baseball_fan]

The planning for and execution of post-war reconstructions is becoming an increasingly important area of study, it must be assumed, within the military and government drawing on lessons whether from the American Civil War, Japan, Germany, Afghanistan and now Iraq. Iran and North Korea, if no solutions are found, may put this expertise to the test soon. I'm still optimistic that the contending forces in Iraq will recognize the peace and prosperity that are at stake and will form a democratic government and society.

[FDNYRHEROES]

MARSTON The North won the war. In northwest Louisiana, we won Reconstruction

Let's see who wins at Reconstruction in Louisiana this time...

[SamAdams76]

James Longstreet was rather competent, a fact demonstrated by his actions and the faith that his superiors always had in him. Actually, some of his mistakes can even be traced back to the overconfidence some of them had in his talents. Indeed, if we take into consideration that the two main "failures" attributed to him by his critics were actually caused by his superiors, its hard to truly blame him. The first of those mistakes is the battle of the Seven Pines, a battle where neither sides won a definitive victory. After the war some accused Longstreet to have been ineffective during the battle. Yet, it is undeniable that the Confederate leaders, mainly General Johnson, made a mistake by giving him such a large group of units to manage when he was used to work with single brigades. To me, the mistakes falls on Johnson's shoulder here, and history would prove it.