Henry McNeal Turner and Ku Klux Klan

        Henry McNeal Turner was an African American minister who was elected to the Georgia General Assembly. He was also the first Southern bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The Democratic Legislature of the assembly removed Turner and other black legislators because they claimed that the right to vote differs from the right to hold office. The Federal government protested and the Turner and the others went back to their seats. Even though black men were free and had the same rights as white men they were still treated inhumanely by a lot of people. Some of those people were known as the Ku Klux Klan.

        The Ku Klux Klan is a terrorist group that began as a secret society after the war. The group was created by a former Confederate leader. They were America's first domestic terrorists. In the beginning the KKK tried to restore white supremacy by stopping African Americans from voting and taking their rights away. They also targeted Radical Republicans that were trying to guarantee black's civil rights. They would do this by committing acts of terrorism. Some instances included threats while some were murder. Lynching was popular among the acts of terrorism that were committed by the KKK. Lynching is hanging and leaving the person hung there. They would often wear white robes and masks as their uniform and also so they would hide their identity. KKK groups are still around today mostly in Mississippi and Alabama. As of 2012 it is estimated that there are around 5,000 - 8,000 current members. They use the first amendment as their defense when the government attempts to interfere.

Reconstruction Plans and 13th, 14th & 15th Amendments

        Right after the Civil War the South needed to recover. Before they would recover the South would need to pledge to an oath of allegiance. If 10% of the southerners agreed to this oath the South could rejoin the Union to become a whole country again. The oath pretty much said that the South had to obey the constitution and laws that would end slavery. Unfortunately, a week after the South surrendered Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Boothe at Ford's Theater. The new president would be Abraham's former vice president, Andrew Johnson. 

        The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were amendments that gave blacks freedom. The 13th amendment abolishes slavery completely within the United States. Although the slaves in the North were already free because of the Emancipation Proclamation, this amendment freed millions of slaves. The 14th amendment granted citizenship to freedmen and equal protection under the law. It also stated that Former Confederate officials were not allowed to hold office. The 15th amendment granted all men  the right to vote no matter what race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Although every man was allowed to vote, educated or not women still were not allowed to vote.

Freedman's Bureau and Sharecropping/Tenant Farming

        The Freedman's Bureau was created in March of 1865. Their goal was to protect the rights of freed African Americans. It was started by Abraham Lincoln and was supposed to last one year after the Civil War. The Freedman's Bureau and people associated with it created schools and churches which are still standing today. They also supplied food, water, clothing, medicine, and more to the newly freed slaves. After the Civil War, most if not all Slaves were illiterate and uneducated. The only thing they knew how to do was what they were doing while they were slaves. Most worked on the fields while some worked in the house with their master. The Freedman's Bureau worked very well to help the former slaves transition to freedom.

        After the Civil War African Americans were not accustomed to the real world. This was due to their lack of education and social skills. Most blacks worked on farms while they were slaves so they were very good at farming. Now that they were free they could do the same thing they were previously doing and get paid for it. A lot of slaves earned some money by becoming sharecroppers. A sharecropper was someone who farmed somebody else's land. The only difference between this and slavery was that they were treated a little better and paid a little money. Most African Americans were still not treated like humans and they barely made a profit. Tenant Farming was similar to sharecropping but with more benefits. Tenant Farmers often owned equipment and sometimes farm animals. The landowners still provided the house and the land while the farmers paid them cash or a share of a crop.

Andersonville

        Andersonville was a Confederate prison that held many captured Union soldiers during the Civil War. It was designed to hold 10,000 people but due to all of the captured soldiers, held 30,000. A captured soldier would be better off dead than held in Andersonville. The conditions inside of the prison were so terrible that by the end of the war, 13,000 out of 45,000 prisoners had died. This was the highest mortality rate of any civil war prison. They died of malnutrition, starvation, diarrhea, and other harmful diseases. In August of 1864 prisoners were shipped to other camps because Sherman and his troops were getting close to the prison. A prisoner held in Andersonville was very unlikely to escape. 

        One reason for the awful conditions was because of the warden, Henry Wirz. Wirz was hated by the guards of Andersonville and usually would not do what he says. By disobeying orders, the guards would not give the prisoners basic needs. Most of the time they could not give them basic needs anyways. After the Civil War, Henry Wirz was charged for war crimes and sentenced to death. This prison highly resembled what the concentration camps were like in the 2nd World War. 

 

Sherman's March to the Sea

        Sherman and his troops began their march through the South on November 16th, 1864. His policy of destruction was meant to make Georgians so weary of war that they would want to quit. Ulysses S. Grant and Sherman himself felt that they needed to do this march to win the war. They thought that the only way the South would go down would be if their strategic, economic, and psychological capacity for warfare were decisively broken. Sherman left schools, hospitals, and churches alone but destroyed almost every other building in his path. The reason why Savannah has a lot of historical monuments that are still standing today is because the Mayor of Savannah handed it over without a fight. Along the way, they freed as many slaves as they could and encouraged the strong ones that were not too old and not too young to go with them. This march was extremely risky because there were no railroads for food and supplies and no communication. Since Sherman and his men did not have much supplies, some stole from innocent villagers. They would steal food, jewelry, and pretty much anything useful and valuable. Although it is unknown how many people died or were injured, there were probably a lot. Most died from sickness, some from lack of resources, and some that tried to interfere with the march. It ended on December 21st 1864. Sherman's March caused the South to completely surrender in April of 1865 and ended the Civil War.

Union Blockade and Sherman's Atlanta Campaign

        The Union blockade of Georgia's coast was started by Lincoln on April 19th, 1861 and did not stop until the end of the Civil War. The North was blocking all things imported and exported out of Georgia. This included weapons, food, and important crops like cotton which was considered a major cash crop. One out of every three ships that attempted to cross the Union's blockade was intercepted.  This was a huge blow to the Southern economy. The blockade was a good plan that worked very well and slowly but surely weakened the South.

        Sherman's Atlanta Campaign took place during the summer of 1864. Sherman was in Atlanta waiting for confirmation that he could begin his march. This campaign had several different names. They were "Total War" "Hard War" and "Scorched Earth". Sherman was in Atlanta for two months before his plan to march was approved. During this time Sherman and his men did as much as they could to ruin the South while still being somewhat humane. To ruin the transportation, they burned the railroad tracks util they were hot enough to bend. They then bent the tracks around a nearby tree so it was irreparable. They would burn down every building except for schools, churches, hospitals. Once Sherman got word that it was time to march, he and his men left Atlanta like nothing had happened.

Chickamauga

        The Battle of Chickamauga took place South East of Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was fought  September 19th and September 20th, 1863. It was known as the Union's biggest loss throughout the Civil War. The Union was led by Major General William Rosecrans while the Confederates were led by General Braxton Bragg. Somebody misinformed Rosecrans that there was a gap in his line of men and when he attempted to fix the gap that was not there, he created a real one. He made this mistake right near the path of thousands of armed and ready confederates. This mistake caused General Rosecrans and the Northern soldiers to lose a very important battle. In the end the South had 18,454 casualties while the North had 16,170. The Battle of Chickamauga had the second most casualties in the Civil War.

Chickamauga Battle Map
Blue - Union
Red - Confederate