by Daniel Wyatt
Stanton resigned his post and practiced law until he died in 1869, four days after he was appointed by Grant to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Reconstruction
Five days after Lee surrendered to Grant in April 1865, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, making it possible for his opponents to rise out of the rubble of political turmoil. With Lincoln and his lenient peace-term ideas out of the way, the Radical Republicans, through a two-thirds majority vote in Congress in the 1866 elections (which could override any presidential veto) were powerful enough to draw up their own reconstruction plans. As a result, the ten Southern states were divided into five military districts, each governed by a major general. New constitutions for each state were drawn up and made to accommodate colored voters. Armed with his own reconstruction plans, Andrew Johnson opposed the Radical Republicans and tried to veto their scheme.
But the Republican majority overruled him.
As a result of the 1869 presidential election, the Radicals had found their man in Grant, who favored the harsh Radical proposals. The reconstruction agenda was passed. For nearly another decade until 1877, the South watched as her land and possessions were seized by Northern carpetbaggers and underhanded businessmen, reminiscent of the era of speculating and blockade running during the war.
Cape Fear
Years after the war, and well into the twentieth century, a new set of speculators came onto the Cape Fear scene in the form of land developers. Smithville was renamed Southport. Smith Island became Bald Head Island. Wilmington grew in size and importance.
Today, the Cape Fear coast is a lively tourist attraction, rich in history, natural beauty, fine sandy beaches, lush-green golf courses, and friendly suburban communities. With pleasant year-round temperatures, Cape Fear is advertised as “a great place to live” and “a great place to visit.”
Never again will a daring sea captain round Cape Fear at night, stand on the deck of his sleek runner at high tide and hear his white sails crack in the breeze. Never again will a captain hear the mixture of Southern and British voices, smell the aromas from the galley, and feel the rumble of the giant engines below deck during a dash through the Union blockade. It took a war to do it.
The only war ignited by cotton.
Daniel Wyatt
Historical fiction writer Daniel Wyatt is Canadian-born, and lives in Burlington, Ontario. His interest in history began in high school in Regina, Saskatchewan, where he became an avid reader of books on World War II, aviation, and the American Civil War, to name a few subjects.
His first published work was Two Wings and a Prayer by Boston Mills Press in 1984, a book of first person stories from World War II air force veterans. This was followed up by Maximum Effort in 1986, also from Boston Mills Press, concentrating on stories from bomber veterans. In 1990, Wyatt made the switch to historical fiction with The Last Flight of the Arrow, a techno-thriller setting for the only military flight of the highly-advanced Canadian fighter aircraft considered by many experts to be ahead of its day. Originally published by Random House, it sold 20,000 copies in paperback.
Since then, Wyatt's published works include six other books, and magazine articles for the Canadian “TV Times”, and for American magazines “Baseball Digest”, “Aviation”, “Aviation Heritage”, “Aviation History”, and “World War II”.
Books by Daniel Wyatt
Two Wings and a Prayer
Maximum Effort
The Last Flight of the Arrow
The Mary Jane Mission
The Cotton Run
Pennant Man
Route 66
“The Falcon File” series:
The Fuehrermaster
The Filberg Consortium
Foo Fighters
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