On this date in 1863

[Bull Snipe]

Confederate General John Pemberton surrendered the city of Vicksburg MS and its 29 thousand defenders to Union Major General Ulysses S. Grant. This was the second Confederate General to surrender his army to Grant. Defeated, in battle at Gettysburg, by General George Meades Army of the Potomac; General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia begins its withdrawal from Pennsylvania. About one third of Lee's Army were casualties.

Quite a 4th of July for the Union.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Lee should have listened to Longstreet

[jeffersondem]

“The Federal government was never in total control after the election of 1876 ending Reconstruction.”

Union bayonets won a glorious victory and now you don’t want to own it!

By your telling within four years of the disaster at Appomattox the South had the strength to force a corrupt Grant administration on the nation.

[Bull Snipe]

you may be correct in that opinion.

[Verginius Rufus]

You could always join the Sons of the American Revolution, which is actually an older organization. The DAR was founded because the SAR would not allow women to join as members. You should look into it—if there’s a local chapter you’ll probably find it is full of good patriotic Americans.

[Verginius Rufus]

The Radical Republicans were mostly interested in political control. When they realized that they could be the dominant political party while writing off the South, they did so. A few of them may have been genuinely interested in uplifting the freedmen but most Northerners of that time were just as prejudiced towards black people as white Southerners were. Between 1860 and 1912 only one Democrat won election to the Presidency (Grover Cleveland, twice), and Wilson only won in 1912 because the Republicans split between Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.

[BroJoeK]

jeffersondem: "By your telling within four years of the disaster at Appomattox the South had the strength to force a corrupt Grant administration on the nation."

Naw, you're confused about history.
The 1876 presidential election pitted Republican Ohio Gov. Rutherford B. Hayes against Democrat New York Gov. Samuel J. Tilden.
The vote was close and the election resolved by a corrupt bargain:

"An informal deal was struck to resolve the dispute: the Compromise of 1877, which awarded all 20 electoral votes to Hayes; in return for the Democrats conceding to Hayes' election, the Republicans agreed to withdraw federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction.[2]"

With the withdrawal of Federal troops, Democrats took over the South and effectively nullified the 13th, 14th & 15th Amendments for nearly 100 years.

Of course, you know all that, right?

[cowboyusa]

Yes, but with US flags!

[cowboyusa]

Thank you.

[cowboyusa]

Don’t forget the Texan Unionists.

[cowboyusa]

Your the same as the left, you both hate the US.

[cowboyusa]

You are the same as the left, you hate the US. By the way, the South would have broken up into more little states.

[BroJoeK]

Verginius Rufus: "The Radical Republicans were mostly interested in political control."

All political parties exist to win elections based on their principles & beliefs as spelled out, for example, in their party's platform.

Verginius Rufus: "When they realized that they could be the dominant political party while writing off the South, they did so."

You can just as quickly accuse Republicans today of "writing off" our big cities, which have been run almost exclusively by Democrats for, in come cases, over 100 years.
But the truth is that every big city has a Republican party who millions of voters hope to elect.
But they only occasionally succeed -- i.e., Rudi Giuliani.
Is that the Republicans' fault, or is it simply there's often no way for a Republican to win and still be a true Republican?

Same for many decades in the Solid Democrat South.

Verginius Rufus: "A few of them may have been genuinely interested in uplifting the freedmen but most Northerners of that time were just as prejudiced towards black people as white Southerners were."

Only if by "most Northerners" you mean Northern Democrats, partnered with their racist Southern Democrat allies.
Northern Republicans did not write the kinds of Black Codes, Jim Crow & segregation laws typical in the racist Democrat South.

Verginius Rufus: "Between 1860 and 1912 only one Democrat won election to the Presidency (Grover Cleveland, twice), and Wilson only won in 1912 because the Republicans split between Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft."

Demonstrating that Republicans had a successful election strategy which worked for them until the Great Depression and FDR's "New Deal" caused a long-term sea-change in voter attitudes.

[BroJoeK]

"Don’t forget the Texan Unionists."

In 1860 Texas did not have the huge population it does today -- my numbers show Texas provided about 87,000 Confederate troops and only 2,000 Union troops.

But there were regions of strong Unionism including some of my ancestors in the Texas Hill Country.

[Verginius Rufus]

In 1865 some of the Northern states restricted voting to white males. The Fourteenth Amendment was carefully crafted to try to force the Southern states to grant the vote to black men (by threatening loss of Congressional seats if they did not--a threat never actually carried out) while not affecting the Northern states where the number of blacks was insignificant (generally under 1%). They pushed for the Fifteenth Amendment, which did extend voting rights in all states, only when they realized that the small number of black men in the North could be the margin of victory in close elections.

New York did not pass a law against discriminating against people on the basis of race in hiring until 1948.

I had a great-great-grandfather who served on the Union side in the Civil War in Missouri. He later ran for office as a Republican but lost (I don't know which year or for what office). His brother was a Confederate.

[Verginius Rufus]

Texas population in 1860 was 604 thousand. 22 states had more people in the 1860 census.

[mac_truck]

On the other hand my greatX5 grandfather served through the Revolutionary War, making me eligible to join the Daughters of the American Revolution, except for being born male.

If your greatx5 grandfather served as an officer in the Continental Army, you're eligible to join the Society of the Cincinnati , which is the nation's oldest patriotic organization.

[mac_truck]

Don’t forget the Texan Unionists.

Sam Houston was pro-Union iirc.

[jeffersondem]

“Your the same as the left, you both hate the US.” (sic)

Not hardly.

[jeffersondem]

“The vote was close and the election resolved (in favor of the Republicans) by a corrupt bargain:”

Thank you for acknowledging the radical Republican corrupt bargain. I thought it might take three or four posts to get that admission.

Next, I'll have you agreeing the Grant administration was corrupt.

[Hootowl]

Thanks! I’ll look into that. Never heard of it before.