Not a vestige of his whole vast estate remains today.Not far distant were the estates of a large proprietor and a well-known family, rich and distinguished for generations.The slaves were gone.The family is gone.A single scion of the house remains, and he peddles tea by the pound and molasses by the quart, on a corner of the old homestead, to the former slaves of the family and thereby earns his livelihood."General Lee's good example influenced many.Commercial enterprises were willing to pay for the use of his name and reputation, but he wished to farm and could get no opportunity."They are offering my father everything," his daughter said, "except the only thing he will accept, a place to earn honest bread while engaged in some useful work." This remark led to an offer of the presidency of Washington College, now Washington and Lee University, which he accepted."I have a self-imposed task which I must accomplish," he said, "Ihave led the young men of the South in battle; I have seen many of them fall under my standard.I shall devote my life now to training young men to do their duty in life."The condition of honest folk was still further troubled by a general spirit of lawlessness in many regions.Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana recognized the "Union" state government, but the coming of peace brought legal anarchy to the other states of the Confederacy.The Confederate state and local governments were abolished as the armies of occupation spread over the South, and for a period of four or six months there was no government except that exercised by the commanders of the military garrisons left behind when the armies marched away.Even before the surrender, the local governments were unable to make their authority respected, and soon after the war ended, parts of the country became infested with outlaws, pretend treasury agents, horse thieves, cattle thieves, and deserters.Away from the military posts only lynch law could cope with these elements of disorder.
With the aid of the army in the more settled regions, and by extra-legal means elsewhere, the outlaws, thieves, cotton burners, and house burners were brought somewhat under control even before the state governments were reorganized, though the embers of lawlessness continued to smolder.
The relations between the Federal soldiers stationed in the principal towns and the native white population were not, on the whole, so bad as might have been expected.If the commanding officer were well disposed, there was little danger of friction, though sometimes his troops got out of hand.The regulars had a better reputation than the volunteers.The Confederate soldiers were surfeited with fighting, but the "stay-at-home" element was often a cause of trouble.The problem of social relations between the conquerors and the conquered was troublesome.The men might get along well together, but the women would have nothing do with the "Yankees," and ill feeling arose because of their antipathy.Carl Schurz reported that "the soldier of the Union is looked upon as a stranger, an intruder, as the 'Yankee,' the 'enemy.'...
The existence and intensity of this aversion is too well known to those who have served or are serving in the South to require proof."In retaliation the soldiers developed ingenious ways of annoying the whites.
Women, forced for any reason to go to headquarters, were made to take the oath of allegiance or the "ironclad" oath before their requests were granted; flags were fastened over doors, gates, or sidewalks in order to irritate the recalcitrant dames and their daughters.Confederate songs and color combinations were forbidden.In Richmond, General Halleck ordered that no marriages be performed unless the bride, the groom, and the officiating clergyman took the oath of allegiance.He explained this as a measure taken to prevent "the propagation of legitimate rebels."The wearing of Confederate uniforms was forbidden by military order, but by May 1865, few soldiers possessed regulation uniforms.In Tennessee the State also imposed fines upon *wear wearers of the uniform.In the vicinity of military posts, buttons and marks of rank were usually ordered removed and the gray clothes dyed with some other color.General Lee, for example, had the buttons on his coat covered with cloth.But frequently the Federal commander, after issuing the orders, paid no more attention to the matter and such conflicts as arose on account of the uniform were usually caused by officious enlisted men and the Negro troops.Whitelaw Reid relates the following incident:
