A House United: America in the Civil War and Beyond

By the turn of 1863, the Confederate armies had all but disintegrated. In Texas, cut off from the east, Lee commanded fewer than 10,000 men. Forever running low on munitions and food, the ostentatiously titled Army of the West busied itself with the ransacking of Union wagon trains. Grant, now leading some 40,000 men methodically advanced south, intent on pinning Lee’s raiders to the sea. Along the Atlantic coast Jeb Stuart had lost control of his own armies. Never one for grand strategy, Stuart had granted his various forces almost total independence. While the intent was to allow them to strike Sheridan’s invaders as they saw fit, many had taken to ransacking the country or had simply headed home. The Carolinas had become an anarchy, leading previously loyal Confederate citizens to welcome the advancing Union soldiers, desperate for protection against the outlaws. Kirby Benning’s Army of Tennessee was the only rebel force still in any kind of order. Outnumbered 3-to-1 by Clemens’ Army of the Cumberland, Benning was nonetheless fighting a vicious campaign of delay as the Northern juggernaut rumbled towards Montgomery, the Confederate capital.

President Jefferson Davis was under increasing pressure to come to terms with Lincoln. Whispers of mutiny, slave flight, economic collapse and general lawlessness all made the rebel position hopeless without even taking Union armies into account. Davis would hear none of it. When Vice-President Stephens offered in February to travel north to discuss surrender, his commander-in-chief ordered him to Tallahassee. Ostensibly to oversee the construction of new fortifications, Stephens was sent into exile and the Cabinet promptly kept their worries to themselves. Montgomery began considering drastic action. In Texas, while Lee’s men, mainly easterners who had participated in the Illinois campaign kept loyal to their commander, the locals were more ambivalent. The state had operated as little more than a supply depot for the Confederate war effort and by 1863 government officials were forcing the maintenance of the cotton farms to be exported via Mexico. Texas saw little reward for the scheme beyond grumbling bellies. In May 1863, word reached west of a new conscription drive, this time calling for the nationalisation of slaves as soldiers.

To men like Pendleton Murrah, a leading radical in the state assembly, this was too much. Having already battled with Davis and Governor Lubbock over the drafting of white men, Murrah found the order a crime against the very idea of the rebellion. Inspired by Sam Houston, father of Texas and an ambivalent Confederate, Murrah and his supporters began fermenting support for a new secession and the rebirth of the Texan Republic. In June, sympathetic State Guardsmen attempted to seize the Galveston armoury but were beaten back. Murrah and his several thousand supporters retreated to the Mexican border and established a provisional government, known popularly as the ‘Rio Grandees’. The revolt achieved little but to send the state into further chaos. Lee lacked the manpower to deal with Murrah and Grant simultaneously and soon low level violence swept Texas between Confederate loyalists and the Rio Grandees. In late July, following the assassination of Lubbock by a Murrah supporter and the fall of San Antonio, Lee gathered his men and headed east, hoping to break through to Montgomery[1].


Lee’s hopes were to be dashed. On August 1st, he met Nathaniel Farnsworth’s well-rested army near Biloxi. Heavily outnumbered and drained from two years of seemingly pointless war, Lee showed little of his skill and verve against the inexperienced New Englander. Lee likely could have circumvented Farnsworth and with luck made it to the capital, but perhaps he was simply tired of running. After two hours of battle Lee retired from the field and sent a messenger requesting terms for his army’s surrender. A week later Benning found himself surrounded in Montgomery. By now aware Lee was gone and that Sherman was behind him, he raised the white flag over the Confederate capital and offered his sword to Clemens on August 9th. Although this should have been the indicator for the war’s end, it was to officially continue for another five weeks. Davis, by now having surrounded himself with a clique of diehards, made his way to Florida. In these last days, Confederate war plans became utterly delusional with Davis planning to raise 100,000 loyal slave soldiers and ally with the Rio Grandees to crush the Union armies in a vast pincer [2].

The problem for the Union now was who to negotiate with. On August 20th, following a decisive defeat by Sheridan at Greenville in South Carolina, Stuart had been killed while on a scouting mission. Without any major rebel commanders both alive and at large, the Northern armies continued their push south, the war now an occupation with bandits not soldiers their primary concern. On September 16th 1863 the official Confederate surrender finally came, however it was not from Davis but Stephens. Davis had been caught by a Union frigate attempting to flee Florida three days earlier, apparently to meet up with Murrah in Texas, though more likely he was attempting to escape to Cuba. On hearing of the President’s capture (and his continued refusal to negotiate), Stephens quickly assumed the powers granted to him by the line of succession and met Sheridan in Pensacola to declare the rebellion over. It was a welcome end to what had been a gruelling, horrible war. Estimated causalities lay around 500,000, the Deep South had been ravaged by Union and Confederate soldiers alike and the issue of Black America still hung over the country. For Lincoln and the United States the war had been hard, few doubted the peace would be any easier.

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[1] Murrah was a real states rights fanatic but never tipped into Texan nationalism. I've done so to explain why Lee ran east and some odd happenings during my game's Reconstruction period...
[2] Davis and co. got some pretty barmy ideas towards the end IOTL as well, including phantom armies and trying to get Lincoln to join him in a crusade into Mexico.

DensleyBlair: Aye comparatively speaking a well fought war. Fear not I've got a big, juicy update on early Reconstruction and the '64 election for you.

Ab Ovo: Ha, well thank you, you're very polite in defeat.

Sandino, Zorro & Estonianzulu: Cheers!

morningSIDEr, Dr. Gonzo & MondoPotato: Thank you, yes Reconstruction will arguably be the true struggle. Only problem is there's about a dozen different groups all convinced they know the best course of action.

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In penance for the thinness of the last update, the next one is extra chunky, hope you enjoy it.

The United States had won a mighty victory in 1863. It had preserved its young republic and finally abolished slavery, removing the great paradox that had vexed the Founding Fathers. The question was could the victory be made actual and permanent? Could it be proved the mighty effort had been worthwhile? In the end the purpose of the war had surpassed secession, even emancipation. For many it had been a war for democracy, liberty, equality; for the last, best hope on Earth. Not just the living but the half a million dead seemed to implore for a future worth the cost. The opportunity seemed promising. The South lay prostrate and passive, even hopeful perhaps, craving civil government and settlement after the chaos and ruin of the Confederate experiment. And then there were the African-Americans, the freemen of the North and the ex-slaves of the South. Hundreds of thousands had served the Union, as soldiers, sailors, scouts, labourers and tens of thousands had died in that service. They had earned the citizenship they longed for; if nothing else victory needed to mean the end to the Southern racial hierarchy, surely? It was this multitude of hopes and fears that lay on Lincoln’s shoulders. He had seen the Union through the worst conflict in its history and now before his first term as president was even ended he would have to captain America’s next project, the great Reconstruction.

An interruption was to come however. On September 17th, only hours after news of the Pensacola Capitulation had broken, the noted Maryland actor and Confederate sympathiser John Wilkes Booth approached Lincoln near Anderson Cottage, his retreat on the outskirts of the capital. The President was walking on a public path with his wife and had no reason to be suspicious until Booth drew his pistol at point blank range. The assassin yelled ‘Deo Vindice!’ and pulled the trigger [1]. The pistol backfired and, perhaps in a gut reaction in defence of his beloved Mary, Lincoln punched Booth square in the face, downing the gunmen with a broken jaw before bodyguards could intervene [2]. Beyond Mary’s nerves and Abraham’s bruised knuckles the Lincolns escaped unscathed. Others were not so lucky. Booth had only been part of a larger conspiracy to decapitate the Union leadership. While George Atzerodt, charged with killing Vice-President Hamlin lost his nerve, his colleague Lewis Powell approached the home of William Seward, the Secretary of State. Claiming to the servants he was bringing an urgent telegram he gained entry to the house. He shot not only Seward but his son and Assistant Secretary, Frederick who attempted to rush Powell on hearing the first gunshot. Both men died within minutes [3]. Powell would be caught two days later and eventually executed for the crime alongside Booth and Atzerodt.


The murder of the Sewards not only robbed the State Department of two of its finest minds but coming so soon after the war’s end poisoned Lincoln’s message of reconciliation. Many, particularly in the Radical Republican camp believed the conspiracy had been a ‘fail-safe’ concocted by the Confederate leadership. Calls for treason trials against Davis and others rose in volume with even the President himself, grieving over the loss of a close friend, debating the possibility for several days before deciding against it. He was insistent the Union would be rebound without recrimination and, taking advantage of Congress’ autumn break, he set about it swiftly. Lincoln’s offer to the South, based on the model established in wartime Louisiana, was lenient. States would be readmitted to the Union following ten per cent of the population pledging allegiance to the United States, ratifying the upcoming Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery and granting suffrage to all black men who were literate or had fought for the Union. Confederate veterans would also be barred from the conventions creating the new state constitutions [4]. The Ten Per Cent Plan and limitations on suffrage outraged Radicals who by now dominated Congress. When they returned in December, led by Senator Charles Sumner and Representative Thaddeus Stevens, they were ready to do battle with Lincoln.

In early 1864 the White House and Congress were embroiled in a crisis. In January the Radicals had passed the Wade-Davis Bill, requiring the majority of a state’s male population to pledge allegiance (known as the Ironclad Oath) before re-admittance, only for Lincoln to veto it. In retaliation both Houses refused to sit Congressmen from states already readmitted, namely Louisiana, Tennessee and Virginia, and promised to do likewise to other Southern states [5]. Lincoln had hoped to swiftly reinstate the South but he now made use of military governors to keep Reconstruction strictly under Presidential control, granting loyal politicians like Andrew Johnson military rank to oversee the project. Although he was the ‘Great Emancipator’ and beloved by many in the party ranks, the President was becoming increasingly isolated from the Republican mainstream, which in turn had moved closer to the Radical position during the war. This finally was made clear in March when the Thirteenth Amendment, a long sought after goal of the Republican Party was held up in the House of Representatives. It was not Democrats and conservatives who were delaying it but in fact Thaddeus Stevens.


The crisis had now reached a point were those most dedicated to abolition were willing to hold off in the name of spiting the President. Lincoln realised a solution had to be found and gathered the Party leadership to talk. Over several weeks of compromise and graft the President, Sumner and Stevens came to a result. The Ten Per Cent Plan would stay; in return a new Amendment would be brought through granting universal suffrage to black men. Further details for Reconstruction were laid out, with Lincoln reassuring the Radicals of his intentions. A Freedmen’s Bureau would be established to help ex-slaves and white refugees. This would range from education to legal aide to land distribution. The latter was the most controversial. Although no land was to be seized in peacetime, large tracts taken under the wartime Confiscation Acts were to be parcelled out to blacks and whites alike [6]. This was to avoid charges of advantaging freemen (it didn’t work) and in an effort to cut off poor whites from the landowner aristocracy who were seen to be the instigators of the war. The Republicans, Lincoln included, also no doubt hoped the creation of a smallholder class in the South would increase support for their Party in the region. 1864 was an election year after all. The final part of the land plan although accepted by Congress and the general public for the most part would haunt Lincoln’s historical legacy and that was the handing of land in the Indian Territory over to black settlers.

Although the Five Civilised Tribes of Oklahoma had not uniformly sided with the Confederates, thousands of Native Americans had joined the rebellion while many tribal leaders had signed treaties of alliance or neutrality with Montgomery. Primarily this had been amongst the Cherokee and Choctaw, who suffered the majority of the seizures, prompting violence between the tribes and Union soldiers under the command of General Grant who had originally suggested the idea to Lincoln. Over the next decade thousands of black families migrated to the region under Freedmen’s Bureau supervision. This trend would continue at a weaker pace following the Bureau’s abolition and by 1900 the ‘Indian Territory’ would have an African-American majority. With the standoff between Lincoln and Congress now over, the Republicans prepared for the upcoming November elections. There was still distrust of the President in some Radical circles, and John Fremont, the party’s first presidential candidate in 1856 and a vocal critic of Lincoln announced he would put himself up as a candidate in May. There was also a small but significant campaign to draft General Alexander Clemens, the main hero of the Union war effort, as the Republican candidate. However when the Party gathered in Baltimore the threat to Lincoln’s re-nomination proved illusory. Fremont soon discovered much of his support had come from Copperhead Democrats hoping to spoil the all but assured Republican victory and at the convention failed to get into double digits on the ballot. Clemens meanwhile gained 25 votes on the first ballot, prompting him to make a speech confirming his support for President Lincoln. Following a revision Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin were officially endorsed on the first ballot with all but seven votes.


The Democratic convention did not take place until August in Chicago and proved a dismal affair. The Party had been divided since the 1860 election, first between northern and southern factions and then following secession between War Democrats and Peace Democrats. A Republican administration, led by a popular President and endorsed by several prominent generals like Clemens and Grant, had crushed the Confederacy decisively. Now that Lincoln and the Radicals had put aside their differences there seemed to be nothing stopping a crushing GOP victory at the polls, particularly as much of the South would not be taking part in the election. The assumed frontrunner Governor Horatio Seymour of New York vocally declined nomination as did former President Franklin Pierce, a man often considered one of the worst leaders in American history and who had openly supported the Confederacy [7]. That such a man would be approached at all shows the level of desperation within Democratic ranks in 1864. Eventually a ticket was cobbled together with Major General Henry ‘Gunner’ Hayes being nominated for President and Senator Lazarus Powell of Kentucky chosen as his running mate. Hayes, touted in the campaign as the conqueror of Virginia was chosen to appease War Democrats and capitalise on his popularity with common soldiers, while Powell supposedly appealed to Peace Democrats and the Border States.

However Hayes had ultimately been replaced in Army affection by Clemens, while Powell was rabid in his criticisms of Lincoln to the point the Kentucky Assembly had attempted to have him impeached in 1863. The two men, far from balancing the ticket only contradicted each other. Hayes, trying to tap into Andrew Johnson’s tough rhetoric promised he would see the South pay for the rebellion unlike that flip-flopping Lincoln. Powell meanwhile declared the Republicans tyrants who had installed a Negro dictatorship backed by Union thugs, thugs assumedly like Hayes. The Democratic campaign was chaotic, its only clear points being opposition to black suffrage and the character assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The Republicans meanwhile provided a detailed plan for Reconstruction that would be implemented by an experienced President and an experienced Congress. This would include tariffs to protect domestic industry and ‘internal improvements’ the keystone of American Whiggism to literally rebuild the shattered South. The GOP had the support of abolitionists, New England liberals, industrialists, smallholders, African-Americans, radicalised former Democrats like Nathaniel Farnsworth and the lion’s share of Union veterans who numbered almost one million former soldiers and sailors. The only thing surprising about the result was that Powell actually won his home state.


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[1] The Confederate national motto; translates loosely as ‘God is my vindicator’.
[2] Lincoln was a strong man and is actually enshrined in the Wrestling Hall of Fame for his ridiculous 300-1 record. If the Secret Service weren’t there I’m sure he would have tombstoned Booth through a picnic table.
[3] Both Sewards were very lucky to survive IOTL, with Frederick actually having the assassin’s revolver pressed into his temple only for the chamber to jam and the assassin run rather than pull the trigger a second time. His father on the other hand survived numerous stabs to the neck thanks to a brace his doctor had given him a few days earlier.
[4] Trying to figure out what Lincoln intended for Reconstruction is difficult but these are the main points he mentioned prior to his death IOTL.
[5] Kentucky and West Virginia are not considered part of Reconstruction.
[6] This was part of the Bureau’s original intent but Andrew Johnson used his presidential authority to hand all land confiscated back to its original owners. Lincoln praised the wartime farms set up and run by ex-slaves so I imagine he would be fine with it en masse in peacetime.
[7] Pierce was approached IOTL too, the Democrats really were that desperate.

SotV: Thanks. No they're not in-game I just thought it would be fun to have Lincoln survive and thought I'd balance that with Seward's death. His demise also plays into later events...

DensleyBlair: Cheers! Well I'm pretty new to American history and beyond gorging on particular books and Wikipedia I'm quite a novice so do bare with me. However I have a few ideas for Alt-History goodness.

Dr. Gonzo: Seward will effect events as we go along but nothing huge really.

Zorro: I thought I'd continue Jackson's tradition of kicking the crap out of your attacker.

Sandino: He was indeed. And yes the Great Cosmic Dragons of the Virgin White Empire will crop up.

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Update in bound! And remember the AARland Choice Awards are currently running so remember to vote, there's plenty of excellent AARs deserving the nod and I'd if you fancied voting for A House United that would be okay too.

Following the landslide Republican victory in the 1864, it seemed to most Northerners that Reconstruction was all but complete. The Thirteenth Amendment had been ratified by both Houses prior to the election and in December was followed by the Fourteenth, granting universal male suffrage, which was blitzed through Congress by a now entrenched Republican majority. Lincoln was confident all states would be back in the fold by 1866. Even hard-liners like Thaddeus Stevens seemed convinced, stating after the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment that ‘we march towards a new dawn’. This was based on the assumption the South as a whole would welcome, or at least accept the Federal settlement, undoing a centuries old social hierarchy. From the position of Northern politicians it is perhaps not so naïve as it would first seem. The new Congressmen from Tennessee, Virginia and Louisiana were primarily former Whigs or at least shamefaced Democrats (almost all were officially Independents), who talked of the rebellion like apologetic schoolchildren. They presented an acceptable face for Dixie in Washington but in truth they had been cultivated during the dying days of the war. Few commanded the respect of the majority of whites, rich or poor, who looked upon Reconstruction however moderate with fear.

By the start of 1865 Southern submission to Northern victory had faded. As Davis and others were finally pardoned they were greeted not as over adventurous fools but heroes. Bitterness ran deep. Defeat had been educative to the extent that it induced the rebels to become Americans again and persuaded many that the region would have to make a serious effort to industrialise, so a ‘New South’ may arise. Already memorials and commemorations to the ‘Lost Cause’ were being organised. The Yankees were not forgiven and their protégés the freedmen were not accepted. While abolition was seen as a fait accompli, equality before the law (limited as it was) was an entirely different affair. As the Fourteenth Amendment came up for ratification in the South, unrest quickly rose. Georgia proved the epicentre. Despite the efforts of Alexander Stephens, the former Confederate Vice-President and his allies, the supposedly amiable state convention rejected the Amendment by a strong majority in March. Legislative intransigence soon gave way to violence. On April 2nd, demobbing black soldiers in the state capital were confronted by police and white civilians. The altercation over a buggy crash soon escalated into a race riot as schools and churches were set alight and veterans strung up on lampposts. By the time General Sheridan’s troops arrived to control the situation the Atlanta Riots had left over a hundred dead [1].

Atlanta was simply the most dramatic example of racial violence. News flooded in almost daily to the Freedmen’s Bureau of beating, murder and rape. Often these were the spontaneous acts of a former slave owner, overzealous policeman or drunken mob. Increasingly though it was the work of secret societies and paramilitary groups who charged themselves with protecting ‘white womanhood’ and keeping the Negro down [2]. The Ku Klux Klan became the most infamous, donning outlandish white robes to terrorize freedmen and their allies in the night. Alongside blacks, the Klan targeted scalawags, Southerners cooperating with Federal authorities and carpetbaggers, Northerners primarily teachers, businessmen and civil servants who had traveled South to aid Reconstruction. Indeed their first murder was a white Georgian, Judge Ashburn. The Klan was a loose organisation, effectively a franchise with independent cells across the South, many giving little heed to the Grand Wizard, General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his manifesto, the Prescripts. Beyond political goals, Klansmen, often formerly of Jeb Stuart’s raiders, used their secrecy in everything from rum-running to theft to settling grudges against neighbours. Others like the Southern Cross and Knights of the White Camellia mimicked the Klan. To many they were vigilantes defending Southern honour, to others they were a reminder of the chaos of the rebellion. In northern Alabama white farmers established the Anti-Ku Klux to combat the outright criminality of the local Klan [3]. Freedmen, particularly in the Carolinas were land redistribution had been most extensive, formed armed militias to do likewise.

The resurgence in violence shocked Washington. The Radicals in Congress sited it as proof of the leniency of the President and called for strict measures. Lincoln’s long-term approach was later deemed the ‘scalawag strategy’, relying on Southern moderates at state level to resolve Reconstruction. The Radicals meanwhile had what became known as the ‘carpetbagger strategy’, the need for direct Federal intervention in the region. In May 1865 the Radicals attempted to pass the Reconstruction Bill. The Bill would have placed all Southern states including those already readmitted under military rule until such time as Congress deemed them fit for re-entry into the Union. The proposal horrified Lincoln. Philosophically it went against what he saw as the entire basis for the war, that the states had never legally seceded. More practically he felt it could only alienate Southerners and undue almost two years of work. Through a desperate coalition of moderate Republicans, Democrats and Southern Independents the Bill was defeated in the Senate [4]. Hoping to appease the Radicals, Lincoln followed the Bill’s defeat up with the declaration of martial law in Georgia by presidential decree. The decree split Congress along new lines. Some like former general Representative Nathaniel Farnsworth accepted the compromise. Other Radicals like Thomas Williams balked, considering it a usurpation of the Houses’ parliamentary powers. War Democrat Andrew Johnson, perhaps the most hard-line member of the Senate and a long-time Lincoln ally denounced the decree as tyranny, worse even than the Reconstruction Bill itself [5].

The decree also split Lincoln’s Cabinet. The Attorney General James Speed had been increasingly annoyed with the President’s approach and criticised the Georgia decision as a half-measure. The Postmaster General William Dennison took it further and openly attacked Lincoln for opposing the Reconstruction Bill before resigning on June 1st. In truth the majority of the Cabinet at least disagreed with the turn of events. Only Seward’s replacement at the State Department, Cassius Clay backed the President to the hilt [6]. Clay was a firebrand Radical but incredibly loyal to Lincoln, declaring ‘Georgia is a drastic problem… we must use a drastic solution in Georgia, and only Georgia’. Lincoln increasingly turned to Clay to negotiate with Congress. A founder of the Republican Party and long-time abolitionist, few Radicals could doubt his motivations. Following the August recess, loyalists including Farnsworth and Schuyler Colfax began preparing a new piece of legislation called the Enforcement Act. It was of two parts. The first allowed for the suspension of habeas corpus on the county level to deal with organisations like the Klan. The second was to establish what was known as the ‘Brownlow Codes’. Inspired by the draconian Reconstruction efforts of Governor Brownlow of Tennessee, it stated that any state failing to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and suffer ‘grave unrest’ such as in Georgia would be put under martial law. In turn until ratification was made, the Army would monitor colour-blind elections and all Confederate veterans would be barred from voting [7].

The Enforcement Act has come to be seen as Lincoln’s most controversial post-war proposal and at the time he hesitated to support it. Clay urged him on, seeing it as a solid compromise for the Radicals and a necessary stick to beat the South back into the Union. Alongside Georgia, Arkansas and North Carolina had failed to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment. Virginia and Mississippi had yet to vote and at the insistence of local Army commanders the votes had been held off expecting defiant rejections and violence. Ultimately it was a radical as Lincoln would go. Thaddeus Stevens was already proposing a modified Reconstruction Bill and many Southern states following the scalawag strategy had successfully ratified the Amendment. Dubbed the New Whigs, alliances of Republicans, former Whigs and ‘New Course’ Democrats had established working governments in Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Texas and South Carolina [8]. Tennessee had been slightly different. Governor Brownlow had been forced to literally hunt opposing convention members down to maintain a quorum! For the sake of party unity and the New Whigs, Lincoln finally green lit the Enforcement Act. The legislation eventually passed both Houses with surprisingly little fanfare in January 1866, the solid Republican majority relieved to finally see their President supporting serious measures and doing so with Congressional approval. Outside of Washington the response was not quite so cheerful.



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[1] This was an actual in-game revolt. The description is based on the OTL 1866 Memphis Riot.
[2] Female virtue had an oddly high place in the charters of the KKK and others. This was due to the fear blacks were just itching to commit mass-rape but also gave a chivalric air to what were essentially terrorist organisations.
[3] This happened OTL.
[4] This being the OTL Reconstruction Act which led to Radical Reconstruction by Congress over the head of President Johnson. It fails here because the Radicals don’t have a super majority, Lincoln hasn’t totally cocked up the opening stages of Reconstruction like Johnson did, and Abe is both flexible enough and popular enough to get most Republicans to stay loyal. For the time being.
[5] Andrew Johnson was a unique Civil War figure, combining staunch Unionism with Jacksonian populism. This meant that while he often agreed with Radical Republicans on a case by case basis he loathed federalism. Combined with all the personal charm of a honey badger he was very much his own man if nothing else.
[6] The namesake of Mohammed Ali, the son of a slave owner who freed all his slaves, helped found the Republican Party, gave Lincoln the idea for the Emancipation Proclamation, convinced the Tsar to sell Alaska, kept a loaded cannon on his lawn and defeated three hired assassins with a bowie knife after being shot in the chest. A real life Magnificent Bastard.
[7] Brownlow was the epitome of Tennessee Unionism. He spent much of the war on the run spreading propaganda through Appalachia and his wife famously pulled a rifle on Confederate troops trying to remove the Stars and Stripes from their home. He was far more radical than any Congress Republican and to this day is ranked Tennessee’s worst governor and his portrait is actually banned from the state capital!
[8] New Course Democrats were politicians who accepted the results of Union victory and wanted to focus on rebuilding the shattered southern economy.