First Military District

[2] In March 1867, Radical Republicans in Congress became frustrated with President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction policies, which, they believed, allowed too many former Confederate officials to hold public office in the South.

[3] Politically empowered Democratic Party politicians who were former Confederates would obstruct the civil rights of newly freed African Americans.

Each of these districts fell under the command of former Union Army general officers to supervise the replacement of undesirable former Confederate officials and use military force to guarantee the safety of liberated African Americans and maintain peace.

Schofield sympathized with Virginia's social and economic leaders and was skeptical of radical proposals to allow African Americans, most of whom had little or no education, to vote or participate in politics.

Aligning himself with the Democratic Party, Stoneman pursued more moderate policies than the other Military Governors, which garnered him support among white Virginians.

It was under Canby's term that a committee of nine leading Conservative politicians, under the chairmanship of Alexander H. H. Stuart, negotiated a compromise allowing voters to ratify the new state constitution.

During the time after military rule, African Americans merely gained minority status in the constitutional convention, in either house of the General Assembly, or in city or county government offices.