Bluecoats and Tar Heels: Soldiers and Civilians in Reconstruction North Carolina

4. The Return of Civil Government

71 Chapter Four tHE rETURN OF cIVIL gOVERNMENT Shortly after assuming command of the Department of North Carolina, General Ruger began transferring authority to the state’s civil officers. Ruger nevertheless was barraged with complaints from Governor Holden concerning troublesome black soldiers and the military’s improper interference in civil affairs. Holden also maintained that civil authority reigned supreme in the Tar Heel State. Ruger disagreed, however, asserting that martial law remained very much in force, enabling him to intervene in civil affairs as he saw fit. The two men had to resolve their differences before civil government could be restored in North Carolina. Thirty-two-year-old Thomas Howard Ruger was born in New York and raised in Janesville,Wisconsin. He graduated third in theWest Point class of 1854 and received an appointment to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers but resigned his commission soon afterward to practice law in Janesville. In June 1861, Ruger rejoined the army as lieutenant colonel of the 3rd Wisconsin Infantry and became its colonel the following September. In 1862, Ruger and the 3rd Wisconsin served in the Union force that “Stonewall” Jackson repeatedly defeated in the ShenandoahValley and at Cedar Mountain. Later that year, Ruger commanded a Twelfth Corps brigade at Antietam and was promoted to brigadier general soon afterward. In 1863, he continued as a brigade commander at Chancellorsville and temporarily led a division at Gettysburg. Ruger’s brigade Brig. Gen.Thomas H. Ruger (Library of Congress) The Return of Civil Government 7 was among the Twelfth Corps units sent to the Western Theater that fall to aid in raising the siege of Chattanooga, Tennessee. During the 1864 Atlanta Campaign, Ruger commanded a brigade in the Twentieth Corps. He was later transferred to the Twenty-third Corps and rose to division command under General Schofield in Tennessee. Ruger’s division played a crucial role in repulsing the Confederate assaults at Franklin. In January 1865, he accompanied Schofield to North Carolina, where his command participated in the Battle of Wyse Fork. AWest Point classmate, Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard, described Ruger as a “deliberative, cautious, and yet fearless” man who tended to dig in his heels when pressed.Although obstinacy had served Ruger well on the battlefield, he found it less useful in resolving peacetime disputes. Still, Ruger’s legal expertise was rare among the army’s occupation commanders in the South and gave him a considerable advantage in negotiating the complexities of postwar occupation. But it remained to be seen if the youthful Ruger could meet the challenge of overseeing the transition from military to civil government in North Carolina.1 On July 5, 1865, Ruger announced that Governor Holden had appointed mayors and commissioners for eighteen North Carolina towns, with more to follow. As soon as the mayors indicated their readiness to govern, the federal garrisons would withdraw, with small detachments remaining to guard public property and inspect railroad trains. Ruger instructed his post commanders to assist in preserving order when called on by the mayors and to ensure that their men obeyed “all lawful ordinances and rules of the towns.” He prohibited any laws or official actions that violated the freedpeople’s rights, warning that such violations would lead to a resumption of “exclusive military control” in the offending communities. On July 6, Ruger announced that the Tar Heel State would be divided into five military districts. Four days later, he issued a circular reminding his district and post commanders that the transfer of authority did not relieve them of responsibility for the sanitary condition of towns within their commands, nor did it remove the liquor traffic from their “exclusive control.” By the end of July, most local governments were functioning. Wilmington resident Armand De Rosset nevertheless continued to describe the Union occupation as “an overwhelming military despotism,” even as he hailed the return to office of Mayor John Dawson and the town commissioners.2 Whereas Ruger’s order restoring local governments met with widespread approval, other military orders proved less popular, such as the 74 Bluecoats and Tar Heels one requiring former Confederate officers “to remove all badges, military buttons, braid, cord, or other articles designating rank.” Unable to afford civilian clothing, most ex-Confederates had to improvise. Charlotte Grimes sewed black cloth over the brass buttons of her husband Bryan’s uniform—“in mourning for the Confederacy,” the former general told her. Soon afterward, Charlotte...