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

2. Military Rule by Default: Schofield’s One-Month Regime

25 ChapterTwo MILITARY rULE BY DEFAULT Schofield’s One-Month Regime As the occupation commander in North Carolina, General Schofield presided over a state that lacked a civil government. President Andrew Johnson’s repudiation of Sherman’s first agreement had made it clear that the governor, the General Assembly, and other state and local officials would not be permitted to resume their former duties. Unlike Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia, the Old North State possessed no Lincoln-sponsored, Unionist government to fill the vacuum. In mid-1862 Lincoln had appointed a nativeTar Heel, Edward Stanly, as military governor, but in January 1863, the proslavery Stanly resigned in protest over the Emancipation Proclamation. Disappointed over the absence of loyal sentiment in Union-held areas of North Carolina, Lincoln decided against replacing Stanly and installing a Unionist government . North Carolina therefore would remain under martial law until the resumption of civil government in theTar Heel State. Much to Schofield’s annoyance, President Johnson failed to act during the critical first month after the surrender. Shortly after assuming command, an impatient Schofield wrote that the people of North Carolina were willing to accept almost any plan “which promises a definite settlement.” Schofield believed that Johnson was squandering an irretrievable opportunity to conciliate North Carolinians by swiftly restoring their state to the Union. In truth, the opportunity was not as golden as Schofield supposed.1 26 Bluecoats and Tar Heels Thirty-three-year-old John McAllister Schofield possessed considerable experience as a wartime occupation commander in Missouri,Tennessee, and North Carolina. Perhaps this was only fitting, for the portly, balding Schofield more closely resembled a deskbound bureaucrat than a warrior. A West Point graduate (class of 1853), Schofield served as Brig. Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield (Library of Congress) Military Rule by Default 27 Gen. Nathaniel Lyon’s chief of staff in the 1861 Battle of Wilson’s Creek. For the next two-and-a-half years, Schofield saw little field service and spent much of that time commanding the Department of Missouri, an administrative post. Beginning in May 1864 he commanded the Army of the Ohio under Sherman during the Atlanta Campaign, and in late 1864, he led theTwenty-third Corps under Maj. Gen. George H.Thomas in Tennessee. In repulsing Gen. John Bell Hood’s Army of Tennessee at Franklin, Schofield dealt the Confederates a crippling blow. Two weeks later, Schofield participated in the Union attacks that nearly annihilated Hood’s army at Nashville. In early 1865, Schofield and his Twenty-third Corps were transferred to North Carolina by rail and ship. On his arrival, Schofield assumed command of the Department of North Carolina. As noted in chapter 1, Schofield’s shrewd advice to Sherman and Johnston to draft two surrender agreements neatly resolved the commanders’ dilemma and indicated that Schofield possessed the skill to effect a smooth transition from war to peace in theTar Heel State.2 On April 27, 1865, Schofield issued two orders that heralded a new state of affairs within his department. General Orders No. 31 announced an end to the war in North Carolina: “It is now the duty of all to cultivate friendly relations with the same zeal which has characterized our conduct of the war.” Schofield urged soldiers and civilians alike to “cordially unite in honest endeavors to accomplish this great end.”The commanding general offered protection to all law-abiding citizens, whereas “those who disturb the peace or violate the laws will be punished with the severity of martial law.” Schofield also promised to issue provisions and loan captured draft animals and wagons to the destitute. Until a civilian constabulary could be recruited, Schofield assigned his soldiers a new peacekeeping role.Their mission was “to secure the interests of the U.S. Government and protect the people until a civil government can be established in harmony with the Constitution and laws of the United States.”3 General Orders No. 32 declared all slaves free by virtue of the Emancipation Proclamation and stipulated that it was the army’s duty to ensure their freedom. Schofield exhorted former slaveholders to pay their freedmen a fair wage and advised erstwhile slaves to continue working for their former masters. Should this prove impossible, Schofield warned, the freedpeople must find work elsewhere and avoid congregating in towns and military camps, for they would “not be supported in idleness.”4 After Sherman’s departure, Schofield’s first item...