Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER THIRD Reconstruction In The Southern States A pilot! God, a pilot, for the helm is left awry, And the best sallora in the ship He there among the dead ! —Sidney Lanier. At the end of the war of 1861-65 began the Reconstruction Period, which lasted in South Carolina over ten years, if we consider the Hayes-Tilden election as its termination. It is necessary for the reader to have a clear general conception of the condition of affairs in the State during that period in order to appreciate the priceless services rendered by Hampton to his country. In trying to effect this, the writer will give a mere outline of the situation before the State and Presidential contest of 1876, and only sufficient details of that time to illustrate the value of what Hampton accomplished. This he will do in the spirit of candor and truth, without exaggeration, and free from intended offense to anyone. The war ended, as everyone knows, by the surrender in the spring of 1865 of all the organized armies of the Confederacy. It is characteristic of men imbued with the true military spirit, to fight hard, to the death, if you like, but, when surrendering, to do so in good faith, without any mental reservation whatever, accepting as irrevocably settled the points which have been at issue. It is not of this nature to complain and regret, still less to plot and conspire. The true soldier, after a fair fight, and his acknowledgment of defeat, has an inclination to shake hands and "make up," expecting his adversary to be possessed of a like generous feeling. The Southern armies were composed of true soldiers, as they had proved on many a field, and when we say "the Southern Armies," we mean the Southern people, for the rest were not of sufficient consequence, either in numbers, or characte...