Sheridan's Secret Mission
How the South Won the War After the Civil War
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A deeply researched, narrative history recounting the little-known late–Reconstruction era mission of General Philip Sheridan, a Union Army hero dispatched to the South ten years after the Civil War to protect the rights of newly freed black citizens, who were under siege by violent paramilitary groups like the White League intent on erasing their postwar gains.
In late 1874, nearly ten years after the Civil War, former slaves, or freedmen, found themselves under siege in the South by violent paramilitary groups like the White League, intent on erasing their newly won voting rights and other postwar gains and consigning them to a condition little better than slavery. President Ulysses S. Grant, vowing to enforce, “with rigor,” laws protecting the rights of former slaves, asked General Philip H. Sheridan to visit New Orleans and other Southern trouble spots to investigate the freedmen’s plight, all while pretending to be on vacation. Sheridan’s Secret Mission recounts the feisty Union war hero’s Southern sojourn amid tragic episodes of racial terror that ultimately fueled the overthrow of Reconstruction-era protections for black rights.
Sheridan made a splash on his arrival in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve, accompanied by family and friends and proclaiming they were sightseers bound for Cuba. But a few days later, through trickery and force, Democrats seized control of the nearby state House of Representatives, apparently assisted by White League operatives, although the state’s majority black electorate had arguably put Republicans, the party of Lincoln and the freeing of the slaves, in control of the legislature.
Federal soldiers stationed nearby ushered several Democrats out of the House chamber, and Sheridan publicly denounced the “spirit of defiance to all lawful authority” in Louisiana. He threatened to round up White League leaders to face trial before military tribunals. In years past, Northerners might have rallied to support the Union hero. But the public was weary of war issues. Many Northern newspapers condemned Sheridan’s actions and deplored the appearance of federal bayonets in a sovereign state legislature. Some called for Grant’s impeachment.
The controversial clash in the Louisiana legislature lies at the heart of this revelatory new narrative history. Sheridan’s Secret Mission illuminates the bitter career of racial oppression in the United States and resonates powerfully with our contemporary “post-racial” condition.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the months leading up to the 1874 midterm elections, the White League, a racist vigilante organization, terrorized Louisiana, recounts former Wall Street Journal editor Cwiklik (House Rules) in this meticulous and propulsive blow-by-blow chronicle of the political violence and the federal government's response. To prevent Black freedmen from being elected or reelected by majority Black populations, the White League sought to suppress Black voters and their white allies. Several massacres occurred; the largest were at Colfax and Coushatta, where more than 150 Black people were tortured and executed. In the wake of the election violence—which culminated with a White League coup attempt in New Orleans—President Ulysses S. Grant dispatched Civil War general Philip Sheridan to New Orleans, Vicksburg, and other restive locales (the White League had inspired copycat groups across the Deep South) on an undercover mission. Claiming to be on his way to vacation in Cuba, Sheridan was tasked to "devise a plan for dealing with the new paramilitary threat." His telegrams, which described white "terrorism" in the region, were leaked to the press, causing a scandal. Cwiklik's narrative seamlessly moves between developments in Washington, D.C., and New Orleans, while bringing into focus other events, including a state visit by the king of Hawaii, that shed light on contemporary attitudes regarding race and governance. Readers will be engrossed.
