How was the transition of Confederate forts, etc. back to Union possession?

[Artfuldodger]

The war was over and everything had to be like a change of command so to speak. I'm assuming, don't really know, that Union Soldiers took possession and all the Confederate soldiers went home?
Plus how long did the transition take? I've never really heard how it all went about. Then I guess some of the old Confederate soldiers returned to Union duty.

 

[Gary Mercer]

Since I grew up in California during my early school years, I never got the history of Georgia.
What was life like for the returning soldiers, and their families? There had to be a change in their lives. Most of the vets and their families didn't own slaves, so what were the mechanics of everyday life in the South? How about the everyday folks that stayed home from the fight? There had to be some real adjusting going on.

 

[trad bow]

I’m sure it was tough and a lot of hard feelings. My mother’s family went from the elite in South Georgia to poor farmers. My fathers family probably didn’t see a lot of changes as they were so far back in the western North Carolina mountains Didn’t a whole lot affect them.
Hopefully someone will come along with some great books to enlighten us.

 

[Resica]

Too bad there were not more journals kept. Too bad they didn't have cell phone cams either. So much we'll never know.

 

[Artfuldodger]

Maybe from the time the war ended and Reconstruction started. I would think the Union would have started occupying their original forts and garrisons, etc., pretty quickly.

The factories and mills and a lot of the industry in the South had been destroyed. A lot of people were destitute.

What about voting and sending senators and congressmen? Both US and State. Seems like the whole transition would be very chaotic.

 

[Artfuldodger]

Was reading that most of the seceded states were back in the Union by December 1865. The war ended in April.
Also reading this;
1865;
Despite the failure to fully comply with his provisions for readmission to the Union, President Johnson announces that the Union is restored. But Congress refuses to seat the former Congressional representatives from the former Confederate states.

Arguing that the former Confederate states had forfeited their statehood and returned to the status of territories, a joint committee of six Senators and nine Representatives declares that only Congress, and not the president, can readmit them to the Union.

 

[Artfuldodger]

In the summer of 1868, seven former Confederate states--Alabama (July 13, 1868), Arkansas (June 22, 1868), Florida (June 25, 1868), Georgia* (July 21, 1868), Louisiana (July 9, 1868), North Carolina (July 4, 1868), and South Carolina (July 9, 1868) are readmitted to the Union. In September, Georgia expels three black senators and 25 black representatives from its state legislature, prompting Congress to re-impose federal military rule in the state and barring Georgia's representatives from holding seats. *Georgia was readmitted to the Union on July 15, 1870.

 

[Artfuldodger]

Governor Joseph Brown calls the state legislature to session for May 22,1865. "...in order that measures might be taken to prevent anarchy, restore and preserve order, and save what remains of liberty and civilization."

May 9. 1865
Joseph Brown is arrested in the governor's mansion in Milledgeville by Captain G. H. Kneeland of the Union Army.

What was his charge?

 

[westcobbdog]

Treason or sedition his bogus charge my guess. Was at fort Morgan in Gulf Shores recently, Walked all over it and can’t imagine what life would have been like, real hot and very cramped conditions manning an already rather old brick fort by 1861 with 1500 or 2000 fellow soldiers, defending the entrance to Mobile bay against an onslaught of well equipped union ships who had cannons that could shoot 10 miles or more, leaving nowhere to hide. Some rebs saw the writing on the wall and were deserters and went home on their own accord, others guests of the federal govt after being imprisoned.
Yanks took their former forts back one by one. Except Fort Fisher maybe it was, it never fell to the blue bellies until the rebs gave it back at wars end.

 

[trad bow]

Most of the mills destroyed when the northern invaders marched and destroyed Georgia here in my county were not rebuilt. Several much larger mills were built in neighboring counties. The cotton mill wasn’t rebuilt and neither was the tanyard. It’s furnace stack still stands today even with the invaders blasting it with canon fire. I live in Putnam which was plantation country back then.

 

[Artfuldodger]

I think the South was under military rule until the President appointed Provisional Governors for all the Southern states. Georgia's provisional governor was James Johnson. He opposed secession and remained loyal to the United States throughout the Confederate period.

Through executive order, Johnson assumed the governorship in June 1865 and began the process of initiating the directives assigned to him by the president. These duties included the calling of a state convention and the implementation of President Johnson's Reconstruction policies.

He was the president's old Congress friend. I'm sure he was a good "Yes" man.

 

[Artfuldodger]

Governor Brown had been concerned about the growing power of the central government in Washington, D.C. Soon he became increasingly concerned as well about the growing power of the Confederate government.

I think he had the vision to see where our US government was headed. Then he saw the same thing happening to the Confederate government. I don't think the Confederate government had much of a choice to unite in order to fight the US government. They could only win through unity.

I think Brown's vision must have been more "states rights" even in the Confederacy.

Brown butted heads with almost everything Jefferson Davis did including being against a draft. I can see his point of States Rights and Individual Freedom but there was a war going on.

 

[westcobbdog]

Agree Dodger, feel like Joe and his Pets hurt the overall cause more than helping it.

 

[geordie]

Ain't it curious that during the war the Union preached that a state could not leave the Union as it was a permanent and a state could not leave the union ;yet afterwards the same politicians argued that each state had to be readmitted to the Union?

 

[Resica]

Governor Brown had been concerned about the growing power of the central government in Washington, D.C. Soon he became increasingly concerned as well about the growing power of the Confederate government.

I think he had the vision to see where our US government was headed. Then he saw the same thing happening to the Confederate government. I don't think the Confederate government had much of a choice to unite in order to fight the US government. They could only win through unity.

I think Brown's vision must have been more "states rights" even in the Confederacy.

Brown butted heads with almost everything Jefferson Davis did including being against a draft. I can see his point of States Rights and Individual Freedom but there was a war going on.

I think Joe wanted to secede from the Confederacy.