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“I finally told them they must take their choice of enforcing their own laws or having them enforced by the
military.”
—W. P. Pease, Capt. 17th Infantry, commanding Post of Sulphur Springs, Texas, report to Commanding
General, 5th Military District, Austin, Texas, 3 October 1868
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Federal troops were stationed throughout the defeated Confederacy to maintain order and ensure compliance with federal
law. It was no easy task for small army detachments in isolated regions, such as Capt. Thomas Tolman’s (Class of
1865) unit in Sulphur Springs, Texas.
A central issue was the place of freed slaves in the reconstructed South. Congress created the Freedmen’s Bureau
in 1865 to prepare newly liberated slaves for responsible citizenship. The reality was different. Headed by O. O.
Howard (1854) and backed by military force, the bureau’s chief function became protecting freedmen against racist
violence. Later it helped organize the black vote for the Republican Party.
African American soldiers had become a significant part of Union armies during the war, 12 percent of total manpower
by 1865. They continued to serve as part of the postwar regular army, and in 1870 Congress directed West Point to admit
African American cadets.
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