s 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 fo