Reconstruction military districts

[1] 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.

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

For Republicans these rights, which would allow the prewar ideology of abolition to translate to real freedom, were critical.

[3] This act, passed on March 2, 1867, divided the former Confederate States (except for Tennessee, after it ratified the 14th Amendment)[4] into five separate military districts.

However, it soon became apparent that the appointed army commanders could only act as peacekeepers until the president unveiled a proper Reconstruction policy.