In conjunction with Greg Downs’ recent book After Appomattox, online maps showing the role of the army in Reconstruction are available. This map shows towns and cities occupied by the Union army in June 1865 at the beginning of Reconstruction.
Downs points out that even after the surrenders of the Confederate armies in April and May of 1865 local Confederate governments still continued in many places. Also, many former slave owners continued to illegally hold black people in bondage after the surrenders. The slaves were only released from bondage when the Union army marched into the countryside after the defeat of the Confederate armies. Months after the shooting war ended, African Americans were still being freed by U.S. soldiers.
I’m really looking forward to more of this blog. Is there a way to subscribe?
Interesting that Dahlonega, Georgia (October, 1868) has Federal Troops for some time. The local citizen hung some union POW’s during the war and threw their bodies in a local river.
Sir: Re: Steven Reilly’s post of 12 Jun 2023
Following cessation of hostilities, Dahlonega (Lumpkin County) was first occupied by an element of Ohio cavalry (identity still being studied) which was dispatched from Atlanta under orders received from Major General James H. Wilson to Brig. Gen. Edward F. Winslow to secure the United States Branch Mint at Dahlonega in May, 1865. At some point, this force was relieved by Lt. Christian Zimmerman and a platoon of infantry of the 149th Illinois Infantry Regt. During this time, an officer of the 29th Indiana Regt arrived on Provost Martial detail to investigate reports of murders of Union prisoners-of-war. The incident in question occurred on night of 15 October 1864 on Bearden’s Bridge Hill 5 miles east of downtown Dahlonega GA. According to testimony taken at a later US Army Court Martial in 1865 at Marietta GA, three Union soldiers Privates Iley Theophilus Stuart, Solomon Stansberry (aka Stansbury) and William Witt had been captured in an action at VanZandt Forge in Fannin County by a home-guard detachment commanded by Capt F.M. Williams of the 11th Georgia Militia Cavalry Regt on or about 10 Oct 1864. . These three Union soldiers together with 5 other POWs were taken to Dahlonega and confined to the upstairs courtroom of the Lumpkin County Courthouse. On the night of 15 Oct 1864, the three men (Stuart, Stansberry and Witt), were taken out and marched to Bearden’s Bridge Hill and shot to death by a detail of men under command of Capt. William Reese Crisson, company commander in Col. James Jefferson Findley’s 11th Georgia Militia Cavalry Regiment. The bodies of the three soldiers were thrown over the side of Bearden’s Bridge Hill and were discovered shortly thereafter by Mr. Will Stringer and identified by Iley Stuart’s wife Margaret Stuart who together with other widows filed detailed complaints with Federal authorities in 1865. Crisson and two other men (Dunk Hollifield and Mac Crisson) were arrested and taken to Marietta to the U.S. Army Post and Court-martialed, The proceding was stopped upon intervention by higher command based upon provisions in surrender agreement of May 12, 1865 between Gen. Henry Judah (US Army) and Gen. Wm Tatum Wofford (CS Army). Crisson et al were bound over to Lumpkin County Superior Court where they were arraigned and an entry in Trial Minutes books shows Grand Jury found “No Bill”.
In reference to the above, it should be noted that Colonel James Jefferson Findley and his command, the 11th Georgia Militia Cavalry Regt. had been perpetrators in a mass execution without trial of 12 Union POW’s of the 1st Georgia State Troops Battalion , US Volunteers (who been captured earlier in action at Bucktown, Gilmer County GA) and were executed on 7 November 1864 near New Holland Mill at Gainesville, GA).The bodies were buried in shallow grave. In July 1867 (according to Post Records of 33rd US Infantry Wilkins Battalion at Dahlonega), a burial detail was dispatched from Dahlonega to exhume the 12 bodies and transfer them to the National Cemetery at Marietta GA where they are now lie in marked graves with a small monument.