The Ultimate Civil War Series - Episode 7 - "New Birth of Freedom" - LionHeart Original

We kept up a continuous artillery fire upon the enemy around the whole line, including that north of the James River, until it was light enough to move, which was about a quarter to five in the morning. At that hour, Parks and Rights Corps moved out as directed, brushed the abatis from their front as they advanced under a heavy fire of musketry and artillery, and went without flinching directly on until they mounted the parapets and threw themselves inside the enemy's line. Following the Confederate loss at Five Forks, Grant determined to strike hard at Petersburg. He ordered continuous artillery fire along the enemy line throughout the night of April 1st. At four o'clock in the morning on April 2nd, the Ninth and Sixth Corps would attack along their respective fronts. The Sixth Corps assaulted the Confederate trenches along Boydton Plank Road. The Ninth Corps was to strike at Confederate-held Fort Mahone. Major Oliver Bobbyshew was with the 48th Infantry Regiment in the Ninth Corps and described the assault on Fort Mahone, or as he named it, Fort Hell. Four o'clock in the morning of the second, a heavy artillery fire was opened all along the Rebel lines. Skirmishers were pushed forward and at half past four, the troops advanced with great alacrity and enthusiasm upon the Rebel fortifications. Only half rationed and with scalding coffee hastily swallowed, the 48th moved toward the rear of Fort Hell. With a savage rush, the Rebel picket line was reached and captured without much of a struggle. The Rebel Fort Mahone's guns belched a very inferno of shot and shell into the ranks. On, on pushed the boys determined to capture the dire old tormentor who had troubled them so the winter long. The attack was almost impetuous. The initial attack of the Ninth Corps was successful, capturing three Confederate batteries. The Southerners were low on manpower. Their line was stretched thin. But the Confederate trench work that had hampered Union offenses so often slowed progress to a halt. Then the Confederates were able to turn their own heavy guns onto the Federals. But as Bobby Schell of the 48th Regiment describes it, the Union troops did not stop fighting. General Curtin, apparently unconcerned under the tempest of shot and shell poured into the command, had the regimental colors brought to him. The men rallied around their standard and led by the brave Curtin renewed the assault, pushed through the obstructing abatis over the moat, scaled the earthworks, securing a lodgment on the walls. Along came the 39th New Jersey, the color bearer gallantly springing right into the midst of the Rebels. An act of bravery that excited the admiration of all who witnessed it. Captain John L. Williams of Company F shouted, forward boys and save the Jersey colors. With one bound, the men sprang forward. A hand-to-hand encounter ensued, which lasted but a moment. The Rebels were overpowered. The fort was captured and the enemy driven beyond it for a considerable distance. The Ninth Corps had overrun the Confederate trenches, but Southern resistance was fierce. It was hours before they could overcome Fort Mahone and hold it, and that was due in large part to the success of the Sixth Corps. The Sixth faced Lieutenant General A.P. Hill's Corps of Veterans, but again the Confederate line was thin. Before dawn, the Sixth had smashed a hole in the 24th Corps. They crossed Boynton Plank Road, headed north. Before they could reach the city, the 24th had to overcome Forts Greg and Whitworth. They were able to capture both in hard fighting. The battle cost the South another of its generals. A.P. Hill had rushed to the scene upon learning that the Union forces had broken through his line. He attempted to rally his men, but instead was shot and killed. Sergeant Major Osborne of Carolina wrote later, About 11 a.m., a battery to the right of Fort Mahone could be spared to run around that rear of the fort. It was quick work. For less than 30 minutes, there was not one wounded Yankee left. They retreated down the ravine, not stopping until they reached their works. The open space of Fort Mahone was literally covered with blue-coated corpses. With that one break through the Confederate lines, the southern defenses around the city were indeed untenable. After nine long months of trench warfare that would not be seen again until World War I, the siege of Petersburg was over. The Confederate forces had withdrawn into the city's inner defenses. Grant planned another artillery bombardment to begin at 5 a.m. on April 3rd, followed by another assault an hour later, but General Robert E. Lee evacuated the city in the night. Lee retreated to the west, hoping to link up with General Joseph E. Johnston's forces in North Carolina, but his own army was disintegrating, shedding deserters as it marched. Whatever else it might still have, the Confederacy did not have enough men to fight the North. The southern forces were worn out. But in truth, there was one source of manpower to which they could still turn to fill their ranks. Slaves. The Union had been recruiting African-American men, both slaves and free blacks, since the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863. In fact, some all-black fighting units were organized even before that time. A large concentration of the United States Colored Troops were involved in the siege of Petersburg. Fifteen of these men would earn the Medal of Honor for their fighting. So if the North, which certainly had its own racial prejudices to overcome, recognized the value of African-Americans as soldiers, why couldn't Southerners? A few Southerners did. December 1863, Confederate General Patrick Claiborne prepared a memo to his fellow officers. Claiborne argued that given the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Union forces, Southerners must be willing to give up their slaves rather than become slaves themselves. Some of Claiborne's fellows agreed, but others were outraged, even calling him a traitor. Eventually, though, the memo found its way to President Jefferson Davis. His cabinet reacted so harshly that Davis instructed Joseph Johnston, commander of the Army of the Tennessee, to squash all discussion of Claiborne's suggestion. As the war dragged on, however, more Southerners began to consider the possibility of offering slaves freedom for service in the Confederate Army. By late 1864, General Robert E. Lee and Secretary of State Judah Benjamin were pushing to give slaves freedom if they would fight for the Confederacy. Although most were still outraged by the idea, the Confederate Congress finally approved a plan for enlisting slaves on March 13, 1865. The Confederacy managed to quickly assemble two companies of black soldiers, but they never saw combat. Once Lee was forced to evacuate Petersburg, it was no longer possible to hold Richmond. The capital of the Confederacy had to be surrendered. As President Jefferson Davis sat in church on April 2nd, he received a dispatch from Lee. Petersburg would fall. Richmond would follow. The Confederate government must evacuate immediately. Davis and his cabinet fled Richmond on the last available railroad line. They brought with them the city's defenders, the treasury, and whatever records that they could carry. Everything else that might be of military, industrial, or intelligence value was burned. As the soldiers retreated, their orders were to burn the armory, the bridges, the warehouses, and any supplies remaining. The fire spread out of control, destroying large portions of the city. As historian James McPherson wrote, Southerners burned more of their own capital than the enemy had burned of Atlanta or Columbia. Finally, the next day, the Richmond mayor went out to the Union lines just east of the city and officially surrendered the capital. Union troops then extinguished the fires set by the Confederates. General Grant described the situation his army found. I received a dispatch from General Weitzel, which notified me that he had taken possession of Richmond at about 8 15 o'clock in the morning of that day, the third, and that he had found the city on fire in two places. The city was in most utter confusion. The authorities had taken the precaution to empty all the liquor into the gutter and to throw out the provisions which the Confederate government had left for the people to gather up. The city had been deserted by the authorities, civil and military, without any notice whatever that they were about to leave. In fact, the very hour of the evacuation, the people had been led to believe that Lee had gained an important victory somewhere around Petersburg. President Abraham Lincoln was visiting General Grant at the time that Petersburg and then Richmond had fallen. On April 4th, he and his young son Tad toured the fallen capital. An aide de camp of General Weitzel named Thomas Graves assisted with Lincoln's tour. The president had arrived about nine o'clock at the landing called Rockets upon Admiral Porter's flagship, the Malvern. As soon as the boat was made fast without ceremony, he walked on shore and started uptown. As soon as Admiral Porter was informed of it, he ordered a guard of marines to follow as an escort. But in he walked of about two miles, they never saw him and he was directed by Negroes. At the Davis house, he was shown into the reception room with a remark that the housekeeper had said that the room was President Davis's office. As he seated himself, he remarked, this must have been President Davis's chair. And crossing his legs, he looked far off with a serious, dreamy expression. The war seemed all but over, but the dying was not yet finished. General Sheridan's cavalry blocked Lee's flight southwest to join Johnston again and again. Meanwhile, the Union army maintained its pursuit. And on April 3rd, a cavalry division under Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer struck Lee's rear guard at Namazine Creek. Both sides took losses, but Custer's men were able to take 350 prisoners plus 100 horses and an artillery piece. Another Union cavalry brigade burned supply wagons and skirmished with Confederate forces at Amelia Springs on April 5th. The Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia met for what would be their last significant battle on April 6th. Grant described the action. The armies finally met on Sailor's Creek when a heavy engagement took place in which infantry, artillery, and cavalry were all brought into action. Our men on the right, as they were brought in against the enemy, came in on higher ground and upon his flank, giving us every advantage to be derived from the lay of the country. The enemy's loss was very heavy, as well in killed and wounded, as in captures. Some six general officers fell into our hands in this engagement and 7,000 men were made prisoners. With those losses, Lee had run out of options. He struggled to reach supply trains at Appomattox Station, but those had already been captured by Custer's cavalry. Grant wrote, The Confederates were surprised to find our cavalry had possession of the trains. However, they were desperate and at once assaulted, hoping to recover them. In the melee that ensued, they succeeded in burning one of the trains, but not in getting anything from it. Custer then ordered the other trains run back on the road toward Farmville, and the fight continued. A sharp engagement ensued, but Lee quickly set up a white flag. Grant and Lee had already been exchanging messages, with Grant hoping to avoid further conflict. With the supply trains lost, Lee was finally ready to discuss terms of surrender. They met in the village of Appomattox Courthouse, at the home of Wilmer McLean. Brevet Brigadier General Horace Porter described the meeting. The contrast between the two commanders was striking, as they sat 10 feet apart. General Grant, then nearly 43 years of age, was 5 feet 8 inches in height, with shoulders slightly stooped. He had on a single-breasted blouse made of dark blue flannel, unbuttoned in the front. He wore an ordinary pair of top boots with his trousers inside. The boots and portions of his clothes were spattered with mud. He had no sword, and a pair of shoulder straps was all there was to designate his rank. In fact, aside from these, his uniform was that of a private soldier. Lee, on the other hand, was fully 6 feet in height, quite erect for one of his age. His hair and full beard were a silver gray and quite thick. He wore a new uniform of Confederate gray, buttoned up to the throat, and at his side he carried a long sword of exceedingly fine workmanship. The hilt started with jewels. Grant offered lenient terms of surrender. Lee's men would pledge not to take up arms against the government of the United States. Arms and artillery would be turned over to Grant's army, but officers would be allowed to keep their side arms, private horses, and baggage. They would then be permitted to return home undisturbed. This will have the best possible effect upon the men. It will be very gratifying and will do much toward conciliating our people. Grant also promised to send Lee's men, who were desperately undersupplied and hungry, 25,000 rations. As Lee left the McLean house, some of Grant's soldiers began to cheer and fire celebratory shots into the air. Grant ordered them to cease. The war is over. The rebels are our countrymen again, and the best sign of rejoicing after the victory will be to abstain from all demonstrations in the field. Everyone present at the surrender was aware that they were present at a momentous point in history. Grant's policy of reconciliation was in keeping with his commander-in-chief's. Throughout the war, Lincoln was thinking about how to bring the rebel states back into the Union as quickly and smoothly as possible. The 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, had been passed by the U.S. Senate on April 8, 1864, and it passed the House on January 31, 1865. On December 18th of that year, it would be adopted into the Constitution. The Confederate states would be returning to a very different Union from the one that they had left. Lincoln wanted to make it relatively easy for states to return to the fold. His policy was based on the belief that states could not, in fact, secede from the Union. They did not need to be readmitted. They merely needed to be restored to their proper state. His December 1863 Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, in addition to pardoning almost all Confederates, required only that ten percent of a state's voting population take an oath of loyalty to the United States, and then vote to re-establish a New state governments would have to abolish slavery. The 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery in the United States, had already passed the Senate and the House. Three states, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Arkansas, had already met Lincoln's requirements and established Lincoln governments. Congress resented Lincoln's ten percent solution. Most wanted significantly harsher terms imposed upon the states in rebellion. They disagreed with Lincoln's belief that these states had not left the Union, and they believed that readmittance should not be easy. Radical Republicans had passed the Wade Davis Bill in 1864. That bill would require a majority of the state's voters to take an iron clad oath, proclaiming not only their future loyalty to the Union, but swearing that they had never personally supported the Confederacy. Since roughly four out of five white males of military age in the South had fought for the Confederacy, this requirement was an impossibility. He wanted to maintain presidential control over the restoration of the states, so he tried to accomplish as much as possible while he could claim the authority given to the president in times of war. On April 14th, 1865, Lincoln met with his cabinet to discuss reconstruction and how to treat Confederate leaders after the war. Lincoln was clear. I hope there will be no persecution, no bloody work after the war is over. No one need expect me to take part in hanging or killing those men, and even the worst of them. Frighten them out of the country, open the gates, let down the bars, scare them off. Enough lives have been sacrificed. We must extinguish our resentments if we expect harmony and union. There has been too much desire on the part of some of our friends to be masters, to interfere with and dictate to those states, to treat the people not as fellow citizens, and there is too little respect for their rights. I do not sympathize in these feelings. Less than 12 hours after making that statement, President Abraham Lincoln escorted his wife into Ford's Theater to attend a play. The mood was festive in light of recent events. The war was not technically over, but the end was near. Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln had even begun discussing what they might do now, now that the mountainous burden of civil war was removed from his shoulders. Then a little after 10 p.m., stage actor John Wilkes Booth fired a bullet into the president's head. Booth and a group of co-conspirators planned the assassination of Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, Secretary of State William Seward, General Grant, and others. They hoped to revive the Confederacy's spirits while General Joseph Johnston's army was still free and fighting. Booth's co-conspirators failed, though Seward and his son were wounded. But President Lincoln died the next day, April 15, 1865. Andrew Johnson was sworn in as president at 11 a.m. on the 15th, about four hours after Lincoln breathed his last. After John Wilkes Booth was killed by his pursuers in late April, President Johnson established a military commission to try the surviving conspirators. They were tried, convicted, and several were executed before summer's end. Not surprisingly, people of the North and South reacted very differently to the assassination of Lincoln, as can be seen in diaries from the period. Caroline Richards of New York wrote on April 15th, Kate Stone of Louisiana, whose family had fled to Texas during the war, had a very different response. On April 28th, she writes, We hear that Lincoln is dead. All honor to J. Wilkes Booth, who has rid the world of a tyrant and made himself famous for generations. Then on May 15th, she adds, Poor Booth, to think he fell at last. Many a true heart at the South weeps for his death. Lincoln's fate overtook him in the flush of his triumph, on the pinnacle of his fame, or rather infamy. We are glad he is not alive to rejoice in our humiliation and insult us by his jokes. Certainly not all Southerners had quite that reaction. Sarah Morgan of Louisiana wrote, Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. This is murder. God have mercy on those who did it. And because I know that they would have apotheosized any man who had crucified Jeff Davis, I abhor this and call it foul murder, unworthy of our cause. And God grant it was only the temporary insanity of a desperate man that committed this crime. Let not his blood be visited on our nation, Lord. Though Southerners such as Kate Stone might record private celebrations at Lincoln's death, those living in areas occupied by Union troops decided that they should at least appear to be in mourning. Sarah Morgan noted that the more thankful her neighbors seemed to be about Lincoln's death, the more ostentatiously they draped their homes in black. And many Southerners recognized that the assassination of Lincoln could mean disaster for former Confederates now that the Union victory seemed inevitable. One such Southerner was the president of the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis had fled to Charlotte, North Carolina, which would for a short time be the final capital of the Confederacy. When told of Lincoln's assassination, Davis said, I certainly had no special regard for Mr. Lincoln, but there are a great many men of whose end I would much rather have heard than his. I fear it will be disastrous for our people, and I regret it deeply. Davis was right to be concerned, for the people of the North felt as much rage as they did sorrow at Lincoln's murder. The desire for retribution, to punish the South, was strong. After Lincoln's death, writer Herman Melville captured the anger and sorrow of the North and the trepidations of Good Friday was the day of the prodigy and crime, when they killed him in his pity, when they killed him in his prime, of clemency and calm, when with yearning he was filled, to redeem the evil-willed, and though conqueror be kind, but they killed him in his kindness, in their madness and their blindness, and they killed him from behind. There is sobbing of the strong and appall upon the land, but the people in their weeping bear the iron hand. Beware the people weeping when they bear the iron hand. He lieth in his blood, the father in his face. They have killed him, the forgiver. The avenger takes his place. The avenger wisely stern, who in righteousness shall do what the heavens call him to, and the parasites remand, for they killed him in his kindness, in their madness and their blindness, and his blood is on their hand. There is sobbing of the strong and appall upon the land, but the people in their weeping bear the iron hand." Jefferson Davis would soon get a sense of the people's anger as the war came to its end. Though it is common to think of Lee's surrender at Appomattox as the end of the Civil War, in truth, the largest Confederate army with almost 90,000 men was still in the field under Joseph E. Johnston. On April 17th, two days after Lincoln's death, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman met with General Johnston to discuss Johnston's surrender. Sherman received word of Lincoln's death only moments before meeting with Johnston. He later wrote, as soon as we were alone together, I showed him the dispatch announcing Mr. Lincoln's assassination and watched him closely. The perspiration came out in large drops on his forehead and he did not attempt to conceal his distress. He denounced the act as a disgrace to the age and hoped I did not charge it to the Confederate government. I told him I could not believe that he or General Lee or officers of the Confederate army could possibly be privy to acts of assassination, but I would not say as much for Jeff Davis. I then told him that I had recently had an interview with General Grant and President Lincoln and that I was possessed of their views, that with them and the people north, there seemed to be no vindictive feeling against the Confederate armies, but there was against Davis and his political adherence. Sherman sought an agreement similar to Grant's and Lee's pertaining strictly to the military, but President Davis pushed for Johnston to get more of a treaty than simply terms of military surrender. He wanted political promises such as agreements to recognize existing state governments and guarantees of property while making no mention of accepting the end of slavery. Sherman, in keeping with what he believed Lincoln would have wanted, agreed to the terms, though he acknowledged that he did not have final authority. When the terms were sent to Washington, he discovered that the mood at the White House was now very different than a week earlier before a man calling himself a southern patriot murdered the president. The new president, formerly Vice President Andrew Johnson, ordered Sherman to agree only to purely military terms of surrender, which Johnston accepted. Jefferson Davis did not want to give up the fight. Brigadier General Basil Duke wrote about a meeting between Davis and a handful of brigadier generals days after Johnston's surrender. After some conversation of a general nature, he said, it is time that we adopt some definite plan upon which the further prosecution of our struggle shall be conducted. I have summoned you for consultation. After we had each given, at his request, a statement of the equipment and condition of our respective commands, Mr. Davis proceeded to declare his conviction that the cause was not lost any more than hope of American liberty had gone amid the sorest trials and most disheartening reverses of the revolutionary struggle. But that energy, courage, and consistency might yet save all. Even, he said, if the troops now with me be all that I can for the present rely on, 3,000 brave men are enough for a nucleus around which the whole people will rally when the panic which now afflicts them has passed away. He then asked that I should make suggestions in regard to the future conduct of the war. We looked at each other in amazement and with a feeling a little akin to trepidation, for we hardly knew how we should give expression to views diametrically opposed to those he had uttered. Davis's generals knew that the war was over. Soon Davis would realize it as well. On May 10th, 1865, Jefferson Davis was captured in Irwin County, Georgia. He would remain in prison for two years. He was released on bail and the federal government eventually dropped its case. With the war over and Lincoln dead, what was to happen with Reconstruction? Lincoln and the radical Republicans in Congress had struggled with each other over Reconstruction. Lincoln wanted it done quickly. He was adamant that states must accept the effects of the Emancipation Proclamation and outlaw slavery in their constitutions. But he wanted their return into the federal fold to be otherwise as smooth as possible. The radical Republicans had a much harsher view of how the rebellious states might be reconstructed. Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, who before the war had been brutally beaten on the Senate floor by a southern congressman, believed that they had committed state suicide and should be treated as conquered land. He strongly objected to Lincoln's lenient policy. But if he found Lincoln's plan too lenient, Johnson's policies completely outraged him. Under Johnson, the southern states quickly set up new Johnson governments recognized by the federal government. The states quickly passed black codes, which denied freedmen the right to vote, serve on juries, or testify against whites in court. They could not overturn the 13th Amendment, but they could resist it in spirit. Major General William Tecumseh Sherman, in January 1865, had issued special field order number 15, which provided land to former slaves. Heads of households would get 40 acres of land, which had once been part of a plantation. Some would also get the use of a Union Army mule for plowing. About 40,000 slaves were settled on land under this order, but it did not last. Sherman's order had been made as a wartime measure, and for the policy to continue, the civil government would need to take similar action. Instead, in the fall of 1865, President Johnson rescinded Sherman's order. We can never know how Lincoln might have handled Reconstruction after the war, or how he would have managed the relationship with Congress. But we do know that Andrew Johnson's inability to work with Congress, his patent racism, and his clear unwillingness to support the rights of four million freed slaves meant that the executive branch lost all control over Reconstruction. Throughout Johnson's presidency, Congress would take action, such as creating the Freedmen's Bureau. Johnson would veto the act, and then Congress would override his veto. So how did these former slaves survive in the early years after the war? Their individual stories can help bring to light some of the issues they, and the nation, faced. In the 1930s, as part of the Works Progress Administration, 2,300 former slaves were interviewed about their lives before and after slavery. Here, Fannie Berry and Dora Roberts share their personal stories. I was free long time before I knew it. My mistress still hired me out till one day, and talking to the woman she hired me to, God bless her soul, she told me, Fannie, you are free, and I don't have to pay your master for you now. You stay with me. She didn't give me no money, but let me stay there, work for vittles, and clothes, because I ain't got nowhere to go. After the war broke out, we was all carried up to the plantation in Early County to stay till after the war. The day emancipation was read, there was sadness and gladness. The old master, he called us all together, and with tears in his eyes, he said, you is all free, and now you can go just where you please. I have no more jurisdiction over you. All who stay will be well cared for, but the most of us, we wanted to come back to be the place where we lived before, Liberty County. So he outfitted the wagons with horses and mules, and give us what there was of provisions on the plantation, and sent us on our way to the old plantation in Liberty County. We getting such a bad fix, some of the people died. It seemed like the old lord must have heard the prayers of his children. For a long way down the road, we see the old master coming, and he brung men and horses to get us safely to the old home. And when we got up there, I never see him no more, because he went back up in Early County. Every freedman's story is unique, but they all tell of the hardships faced by people moving from slavery to freedom. Some slaves fared better than others, due to their own skills or luck, or due to a sense of responsibility to their own former masters. But it was clear that the nation could not rely on all former masters to demonstrate such compassion. During the reconstruction era, the federal government dissolved the governments of most of the former confederate states, and managed the states through the Freedmen's Bureau, which was a branch of the military. The Freedmen's Bureau was established to help former slaves obtain food, medicine, housing, education, and land to aid in the difficult transition from slavery to freedom. Initially, the Bureau's focus was on providing the basic necessities for survival, emergency food, housing, and medical aid. But its larger role was to help freed slaves get an in labor contracts. Prior to the Civil War, none of the southern states had any kind of universal public school system. The Freedmen's Bureau took on the task of establishing southern schools for former slaves to teach basic literacy. By 1870, over a thousand of these schools were operating across the south. They also established two dozen colleges and institutes of higher learning for African-American youth. Many of these historically black colleges and universities are still operating today. Another issue was that since these freedmen were no longer slaves, they would count as full citizens in the determination of representation in Congress, rather than the three-fifths of a person. But would they be allowed to vote? If they were not, then the voting power and representation of white southerners would be even more disproportionate to northern voters than it was before the war. Yet few in the south were willing to give African-Americans the right to vote. Southern Democrats were angered by the federal control of their states. Many took their anger out on the freedmen. Some whites formed secret societies to resist and disrupt the new order. These vigilante groups, the most infamous being the Ku Klux Klan, included former Confederate soldiers and were essentially insurgent forces in opposition to the federal government. They used terrorist tactics of violence and intimidation to keep blacks and white Republicans from voting. The Ku Klux Klan would attack at night, wearing masks and robes to hide their identities. They intimidated workers for the Freedmen's Bureau. Across the south, thousands of African-Americans and white Republicans were killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan and similar organizations. Former general, now senator, Benjamin Butler, drafted legislation referred to as the Ku Klux Klan Act. Another former general, President Ulysses S. Grant, signed it into law. The act authorized the use of federal troops rather than state militias to enforce the law in the south. It also empowered the federal courts to try Klan cases and authorized the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. Grant took full advantage of these powers and dismantled the Klan. It would be several decades before the organization would rise again. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 granted citizenship to all persons born in the United States with equal rights regardless of color. This act was passed over the veto of President Johnson and the policy was further cemented into law by constitutional amendments. The 14th and 15th amendments clarified the blacks were expected to have the same rights as white citizens. The 14th amendment, ratified in 1868, stated that all persons born in the U.S. are citizens of the country and of the state in which they live. It further required states provide equal protection under the law to all their citizens and prohibited states from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process. The 15th amendment, ratified in 1870, prohibited any state or local government from denying citizens the right to vote based on race, color, or having been a slave. It is certainly true that governments stretched and broke these restrictions over the decades, but the amendments gave African Americans and others the tools needed to eventually force state and local governments into compliance. Therefore, blacks gained the vote across the southern states and began putting African Americans into elected office. During this period, hundreds of African Americans were elected to state legislatures. 21 were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, including 10 former slaves, and two were sent to the U.S. Senate, one of them a former slave. But these gains did not last. Once southern states were redeemed and freed from federal oversight, they began finding ways to restrict the new rights of black citizens. The KKK and similar organizations had suppressed the black vote in the late 1860s and 1870s. In the 1890s, states created new constitutions that changed voter registration in ways that effectively stripped the right to vote for most blacks and many poor whites. Most prominent were literacy tests and poll taxes. Literacy tests should not have kept most blacks from voting, since the schools created by the Freedmen's Bureau had succeeded in driving down the illiteracy rate amongst the blacks. But some literate blacks were often unable to pass literacy tests administered by white voter registrars. In some cases, grandfather clauses were added to the voting requirements, allowing a man to register to vote if his grandfather had possessed the right to vote. This allowed illiterate whites to skip the tests, but could not help black citizens whose grandfathers had been slaves. African-American leaders such as Booker T. Washington worked to have such practices challenged in court. But in the first years of the 20th century, the courts, as well as Congress, were not willing to fight Southern power on this issue. Successful challenges occurred in 1915, 1939, and 1944, throwing out pieces of the voting barriers that states had erected. But these states would then find new ways to reach the same goals. It would not be until the Civil Rights Movement, culminating in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that these barriers would be swept aside and the intended goal of the 15th Amendment would be realized. Though the Civil War ended in 1865, it has never been far from our memory. And that memory itself quickly became a new kind of battleground, as interested parties sought to control the memories of what happened and why. Proponents of the Lost Cause Movement, including Jefferson Davis himself, emphasized the noble character of Southern resistance to federal oppression. They minimized the importance of slavery, insisting that the war was only ever really about states' rights. Others focused on the emancipation of four million slaves and remember the war as being the only way, in hindsight, to free the slaves from their bondage and free the nation from its dependence on slavery. And still others looked past the arguments of who was right and sought to bind up the nation's wounds through a shared mourning for the over 600,000 killed in the war. Many Americans love and respect Abraham Lincoln as they do no other president. And many others feel that same love and pride when they look on an image of General Robert E. Lee. And odd as it may seem, many Americans love and honor both men. Thousands of Civil War landmarks and memorials, large and small, dot the country roads and rivers and bridges and towns of modern America. Every year, thousands of reenactors don Union and Confederate uniforms and replay the great and terrible battles of that war. Americans may never completely reconcile their feelings toward the Civil War and its participants, but they will never forget.