When the Yankees came : conflict and chaos in the occupied South, 1861-1865
Southerners whose communities were invaded by the Union army during the Civil War endured a profoundly painful ordeal. For most, the coming of the Yankees was a nightmare become real; for some, it was the answer to a prayer. But for all, Stephen Ash argues, invasion and occupation were essential parts of the experience of defeat that helped shape the Southern postwar mentality. When the Yankees Came is the first comprehensive study of the occupied South, bringing to light a wealth of new information about the Southern home front. Examining events from a dual perspective to show how occupation affected the invading forces as well as the indigenous population, Ash concludes that as Federal war aims evolved, the occupation gradually became more repressive. But increased brutality on the part of the Northern army resulted in more determined resistance from white Southerners - a situation that parallels the experience of many other conquering forces. Finally, Ash shows that conflicts between Confederate citizens and Yankee invaders were not the only ones that marked the experience of the occupied South. Internal clashes pitted Southerners against one another along lines of class, race, and politics: plain folk vs. aristocrats, slaves vs. owners, and unionists vs. secessionists
Print Book, English, ©1995
University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, ©1995
History
xi, 309 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm.
9780807822234, 9780807847954, 080782223X, 080784795X
31865253
1. Citizens and soldiers : The first invasions and early occupation policy
2. Rebels and conquerors : Civilian resistance and the transformation of Northern war aims
3. Three worlds : The garrisoned towns, the Confederate frontier, and no-man's-land
4. Deliverance and disillusion : The ordeal of the Unionists
5. To the Red Sea : The struggle against Black freedom
6. The other jubilee : Plain folk, aristocrats, and the challenge to the old order
7. In a strange land : Family and community in the maelstrom of war
8. No river of fire : War-weariness and the collapse of resistance