Sheridan’s Secret Mission: How the South Won the War After the Civil War

by Robert Cwiklik, Rick Adamson (narrator)

An impeccably researched, character-driven narrative history recounting the fascinating late-Reconstruction Era mission of General Philip Sheridan, a Union hero dispatched to the South 10 years after the Civil War to protect the rights of newly freed black men, who were under siege by violent paramilitary groups like the White league intent on erasing their postwar gains.

On New Year’s Eve 1874, Sheridan made a splash on his arrival in New Orleans. Accompanied by family and friends, he claimed to be on vacation and bound for Cuba. In reality, he was in the Crescent City on behalf of President Ulysses S. Grant, who had asked him to undertake a vital to investigate the activities of violent vigilante groups menacing the rights of former slaves, or freedmen.

Grant had been alarmed as Southern white paramilitaries staged a flurry of attacks against freedmen in recent months to neutralize their political clout. The citizenship and voting rights of former slaves were among the most consequential fruits of the Union's Civil War victory. Republicans were now reckoning with the possibility that outlaw gangs like the White League, made up mostly of former Confederate soldiers and winked at by Democratic officials, could turn back the clock and consign freedmen to an existence little better than slavery. A few days after Sheridan's arrival in New Orleans, Democrats, apparently assisted by White League operatives, seized control of the state House of Representatives through trickery and violence. After federal soldiers stationed nearby ushered several Democratic claimants to office out of the House chamber, at the request of the Republican governor, Sheridan publicly denounced the “spirit of defiance to all lawful authority” in Louisiana and threatened to round up White League leaders to face trial before military tribunals. Many Northern newspapers condemned Sheridan's actions and those of the federal troops; some called for Grant's impeachment.

This dramatic clash lies at the heart of Robert Cwiklik’s revelatory new history, which spans a series of tragic episodes of racial terror in the post-Civil War South that contributed to the overthrow of Reconstruction Era protections for black rights. Deeply researched and replete with startling details, the book sheds an essential light on the history of racial oppression in America and resonates powerfully with our contemporary ""post-racial"" condition.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Civil War, Politics, War, Race, American History

Audible Audio

Published January 16, 2024

About the author

Robert Cwiklik was an editor at the Wall Street Journal for more than sixteen years. He is the author of House Rules, about a year in the life of a freshman congressman, and several books for young adults and children.

Reviews

[Brendan (History Nerds United) · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are few historical time periods in American history more frustrating than Reconstruction. Robert Cwiklik's Sheridan's Secret Mission is here to remind you just how frustrating and depressing it was!

Cwiklik frames the story around Union war hero Philip Sheridan's visit to Louisiana during the 1870s. It should be noted that the title of the book is a bit misleading. Sheridan is important to this story but he is barely in it. If you are looking for a deep meditation on Sheridan then you will be disappointed. However, as a brief book using Louisiana as a microcosm for the failure of Reconstruction, it is very good. The emphasis is on "brief." The book is less than 200 pages, but it is a very well written 200 pages.

I would highly recommend this book to someone who doesn't know a ton about Reconstruction already. Some of the events in Cwiklik's book have their own exhaustive books just about what happened. This is more high level but still well done.

(This book was provided as a review copy by the publisher.)

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The book ‘Sheridan’s Secret Mission’ is neither about Sheridan nor about a secret mission. Discuss.”

Plenty has already been written about the failures and disappointments of Reconstruction. Cwiklik’s take on the subject is concise, well-written, and not really meant for those already familiar with the failures and disappointments of Reconstruction (for the uninitiated, he actually defines “Reconstruction” in the prologue, along with terms like “carpetbaggers” and the “Freedmen’s Bureau”).

The book is narrowly-focused, mostly centering on the Louisiana of 1874-5. It’s not really about what the title suggests it will be about, as Phil Sheridan is a minor player and portraying his mission as “secret” makes it seem much more cloak-and-dagger than it really was. Overall, it’s not a bad read. But Reconstruction is complicated, and it’s difficult to do justice to it by trying to make it into a page-turning, personality-focused adventure tale - and I'm not even sure it succeeds at that.

The prologue describes Sheridan’s December 1874 arrival in New Orleans, as he traveled under the guise of a pleasure trip in order to report back to President Grant on the threats to Reconstruction there (that’s the justification for calling it a “secret mission”). His arrival is referenced and teased and repeated several more times in the book before his story begins in earnest almost two-thirds of the way in.

Until then, the book backtracks to focus on Reconstruction in Louisiana and the various political and vigilante efforts in the state to thwart it. The major events that end up having to do with Sheridan’s mission are the 1874 Battle of Liberty Place, in which a white supremacist paramilitary group attempted to overthrow the state’s Republican governor, precipitating Sheridan’s visit; and Democratic legislators’ effort to take over the state legislature in early 1875, which Sheridan sought to use federal authority to thwart.

But protecting freedmen was one thing. Federal interference in state legislative affairs, however justified, was something else. Not only was the South adamantly opposed, but many in the North were as well.

So this presented a dilemma for President Grant. Sheridan was more symbolic of Grant’s policies than the main impetus behind them. So no sooner does he finally take center stage in the book that’s named for him, than he disappears from the narrative altogether. This makes clear that the book might have more appropriately focused on, or been named for, Grant himself, as he was the one who had to struggle with how to maintain the goals of Reconstruction amid growing opposition.

At least the book is accurately subtitled, as it concludes with the end of Reconstruction and “how the South won the war after the Civil War.”

For a short book, it repeats things quite often. The timeline jumps around with lots of backtracking for historical context and character sketches, so sometimes events are referenced as though they’re being told for the first time, when they've already been covered earlier.

For the beginner, the story told here about Louisiana might serve as a good microcosm of the difficulties surrounding Reconstruction as a whole. But I didn’t think that trying to turn the era into a work of narrative history, by focusing on events and personalities and storytelling, necessarily did it justice. A deeper, more historical, analytical approach would be better suited to emphasize the importance and impact of the events described.

And since comparing past times to our own is practically required in a work of popular history, Cwiklik doesn’t abstain here. In portraying the Southern press as minimizing the impact of vigilante anti-Reconstruction violence, he compares it to “our own day, when an assault on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of thousands is portrayed as an innocent meander of tourists by partisan news outlets.” It’s a bit of a stretch as a comparison, but notable if only that it’s coming from an author who is a former editor at the Wall Street Journal.

So this is not exactly a deep dive into the failures of Reconstruction. And it’s not a book about Phil Sheridan, or about a mission that was particularly secret. But maybe Cwiklik deserves some props for trying to turn a complicated story into a brisk, easily-digestible read. At under 200 pages, though, the story could have used a little more bulk to make it less of a snack and more of a meal.

[Tony Villatoro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars.

The title is a bit misleading, since Sheridan only makes the highlight on one chapter and is mentioned occasionally throughout the book. But the central theme is about how the Democratic Party in the U.S. South, led by Confederate soldiers and people who out of greed and racism, incited and performed acts of violence against black Americans to regain control of how things were pre-civil war.

Again, it is heartbreaking and harrowing to read about this history. Coups, setting up rival governments when it doesn’t go their way, suppressing votes of citizens, murders, massacres, and the lack of protection from the federal government; all an unbelievable past that the U.S. has had.

You literally can see the progression of defeat of Reconstruction as you read.

Here are some of my highlighted quotes.

Favorite sentence:
The death of black voices in politics and government left a clear field for the expansion of so-called Jim Crow laws, legalizing racial segregation, and discrimination across the white dominate itself and beyond. -188

First sentence:
General, Philip, H. Sheridan, late hero of the Civil War, made a splash on his arrival at the magnificent St Charles Hotel in New Orleans on the night before New Year’s Eve 1874. -1

Last sentence:
President Grant: “During my two terms of office, the whole Democratic press, and the morbidly honest and “reformatory” portion of the Republican press, thought it horrible to keep US troops stationed in the southern states, and when they were called upon to protect the lives of Negroes – as much citizens under the constitution, as if their skin were white – the country was scarcely large enough to hold the sound of indignation belched forth by them for some years. Now, however, there is no hesitation about exhausting The whole power of the government to suppress a strike on the slightest information that danger threatens. All parties, agree that this is right, and so do I. If a negro insurrection should arise in South Carolina, Mississippi, or Louisiana, or if the negro in either of these states – where they are in a large majority – should intimidate the Whites from going to the polls, or from exercising any of the rights of American citizens, there will be no division of sentiment as to the duty of the president. It does seem the rule should work both ways. -194

—

The citizenship and voting rights of former slaves were among the more consequential fruits of the union victory in the Civil War. Republicans were reckoning with the possibility that gangs like the White League, made up mostly a former confederate soldiers, and winked that by Democratic officials, could turn back the clock and notify the freedmen‘s hard won gains of recent years. -4

Lincoln then me a historic revelation, stating that he personally favored conferring the right to vote on two classes of black men: “the very intelligent” and “those who serve our cause as soldiers.“ No US president had ever before publicly called for extending the franchise to black men. -35

But Lincoln‘s words triggered at least one observer and the joyous crowd outside of the White House. “That means black citizenship,” a startled John Wilkes Booth snarled to his companions. The handsome young actor and fierce Southern partisan then issued a faithful promise: “That is the last speech he will ever make.” Three days later, Booth strolled into the presidential box at Ford’s theater and shot Lincoln in the back of the head. -35

Recent histories of Reconstruction in Louisiana conclude that the state’s 1872 election was so fouled with fraud that, to this day, no one knows who actually won. -49

White paramilitaries killed about 70 black men on that Easter Sunday in Colfax. While such estimates vary widely, accounts tend to agree that the incident amounted to a massacre of singular savagery. -51

Many freedmen now felt trapped in southern plantation labor at miserable wages, with little hope of ever being able to afford a plot of land or a home of their own. -57

Southern Republicans deployed black units, more reluctantly, haunted by fear of a race war. The site of armed black men erased moral boundaries for some white Southerners. -61

The Southerners quickly agreed to surrender state officers and seized weapons. They said they had no quarrel with the federal government. But some weapons stolen from state arsenal by White League forces were not surrendered, and none of the coup leaders was arrested, much less prosecuted. -84

Telegram
Trinity, Texas, December 12, 1874
To the president of the board of supervisors:
Do you want any men? Can raise good crowd within 24 hours to kill out your negroes.
J. G. Gates and A. H. Mason. -92

Former slaves in Alabama sent Grant a petition in early December seeking protection from violent white vigilantes, who had helped to restore conservative white Democrats to power in their state in the recent elections. The petition, written by Philip Joseph, a freeborn, black newspaper editor, said the “colored people” of Alabama face the campaign of “secret assassinations, lynching” and threats to “deprive of employment and the renting of lands” for voting the wrong way. -97

Foster seemed incredulous. Was Ogden now asserting that if the White League “did anything to overthrow the Kellogg government it was accidental?“ “Yes, sir,“ Ogden replied, “accidental.” Of course, the September 14 coup was no accident. It’s meticulous planning even involved sending a White League spy, to tip local authorities about the gun shipment, ensuring that police were masked on the levee when Ogden arrived with his troops, who dispatched them in short order. -116

The journalist covering this drama for the inter – ocean reported that the takeover of the house chamber was done “to compel the use of troops “and make Democrats “martyrs to military interference. “His page one story published the following morning, said Democrats had admitted to staging the entire episode for “political effect,” and could be heard boasting about their success later that evening and the buzzing rotunda of the St. Charles hotel. -126

Sheridan had evidently leaked the telegram to the newspapers in an effort to keep the vigilantes at bay. -149

Ames had to try to organize a militia “true citizens” to protect black voters. But white conservatives made the “color line” such an all consuming issue, he found it impossible to recruit white volunteers for the effort. -172

Democrats violent tactics, including “the hanging of several“ black leaders, had so intimidated the Freedmen that they, “dare not“ engage in politics, and Ames was “powerless” to protect them, Chase reported to his boss. -177

Yazoo County, with a black majority of 2000, recorded only seven Republican votes in 1875. -178

The Democrats’ use of violence and intimidation to wrest control of the state government from the Republican majority, soon known as the “Mississippi Plan” energized allies in other states as the 1876 elections approached.

The promise to restore home rule in the south, thereby ending reconstruction, appears to have been the key to lifting the threat and gaining Democratic acquiescence in a Hayes presidency, although just such a shift in federal policy was likely a for gone conclusion by then. But if a grand “compromise of 1877” existed, as has long been postulated, its precise terms have proof elusive. In any case, several weeks after Hayes was sworn in as the 19th president on March 3, 1877, he acted a decisive shift in federal Southern policy. President Hayes ordered US troops patrolling the state houses in Louisiana and South Carolina to stand down, effectively seating, the terrain to white league and registered vigilantes. -187

Four years following the end of reconstruction in 1877, or the south so-called red redemption, white Southern nurse continued to use violence, intimidation, and fraud to suppress the vote of black citizens, whose numbers still oppose the threat to Democrats grip on power. But these means of black water suppression gradually began to seem disagreeable to their beneficiaries, And a sort of reform movement emerged in Mississippi – not to restore effective franchise rights to Black people, but to implement a clean and legal way to suppress their votes, to salve the souls of white people. -187

The death of black voices in politics and government left a clear field for the expansion of so-called Jim Crow laws, legalizing racial segregation, and discrimination across the white dominate itself and beyond. -188

President Grant: “During my two terms of office, the whole Democratic press, and the morbidly honest and “reformatory” portion of the Republican press, thought it horrible to keep US troops stationed in the southern states, and when they were called upon to protect the lives of Negroes – as much citizens under the constitution, as if their skin were white – the country was scarcely large enough to hold the sound of indignation belched forth by them for some years. Now, however, there is no hesitation about exhausting The whole power of the government to suppress a strike on the slightest information that danger threatens. All parties, agree that this is right, and so do I. If a negro insurrection should arise in South Carolina, Mississippi, or Louisiana, or if the negro in either of these states – where they are in a large majority – should intimidate the Whites from going to the polls, or from exercising any of the rights of American citizens, there will be no division of sentiment as to the duty of the president. It does seem the rule should work both ways. -194

[Tom Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting history of the transition from post Civil War to the Jim Crow period in the United States. The movement from the use of violence by the White Leagues and other secret white paramilitary groups with a wink and a nod from the Democratic party of the late 19th century to the use of the courts to limit protections the Federal government could extend to the Black population.

It is frightening to see the comparisons with today's conservative courts and the actions of Republican led States and Federal legislators in gerrymandering the Black vote to a point of ineffectiveness. And then there are also the growing white supremacist paramilitary groups still in existence.

History isn't repeating itself, it is merely continuing on with little change in the racist bent of the United States. I question the statement made in the dust jacket that we are experiencing a "post racial condition".

[Larissa Brenner · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating story, but I had a hard time following the text at times. It covers a part of American history that is rarely taught in school and certainly worth studying.

[David Blake · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tedious tome with a very narrow story line.

[Tisha La Bonnaise · Rating 5 out of 5]

At 194 pages, “Sheridan’s Secret Mission” is a short book, yet there are twenty pages of notes at the end, citing contemporaneous sources of the period from newspaper accounts, literary references, and first-hand witnesses which authenticate the author’s narrative. There are roughly ten notes per page in the Notes, making one reference note per page for the almost 200-page book. This is a historical volume addressing “How the South Won the War After the Civil War.” I guess it’s meant to be informative, not entertaining, but it is well written. The central problem is how President Ulysses S. Grant deals with the incendiary opposition to the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution to formalize abolition of slavery, ensure Civil Rights, and secure the Voting Rights for newly emancipated slaves in the former Confederate States.

I found the book extremely pertinent to our own times. The federal Department of Justice comes into being in 1870 to investigate criminal behavior set up to thwart the new amendments in and near New Orleans because local law enforcement is ineffectual. Sounds like today’s Special Prosecutors. Opposition to Black voters ignites a tinder box of racial animosity held by many in the local white populace, at one time thought to be a haven for multi-racial tolerance because of the city’s Creole heritage. When Northern “carpetbaggers,” attempt to mobilize Black and White Republican voters, things unravel quickly. Threats, arson, murder, and finally mass murder— “massacres,” become commonplace, all designed to intimidate. Sounds like publicizing jurors’, witnesses’, and judges’ addresses to threaten and provoke assaults against them in our own time, in 2024. Bringing law-breakers to trial becomes impossible because no witnesses are willing to identify members of semi-organized bands such as the White League in Louisiana.

Eventually, the whole democratic experience fractures because dual electors, Republican and Democratic, contest representation in Washington, echoing the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Fact finding is disputed, sounding like “fake news.” Northern and Southern politicians don’t want to be involved in order to preserve their own power. The ending comes in 1876 when the Supreme Court passed the Cruikshank opinion, declining to prosecute insurrectionists who murdered 300 Blacks, thus, insuring voter suppression and perversion of democratic elections in the South for the next 90 years. To me, sounds ominously similar to 2024.

[Chad Manske · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cwiklik’s book is a thought-provoking and captivating alternate history novel that explores a fascinating what-if scenario following the end of the Civil War. Cwiklik imagines a world where General Philip Sheridan embarks on a secret mission that ultimately leads to a surprising Southern victory. The novel is set in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, with the country still reeling from the devastation of the conflict. When General Sheridan is tasked with a covert operation to infiltrate the heart of the South and gather crucial intelligence, he uncovers a shocking conspiracy that threatens to upend the fragile peace. As Sheridan races against time to unravel the mystery and prevent disaster, the reader is taken on a thrilling journey filled with twists, turns, and unexpected revelations. Cwiklik’s meticulous attention to historical detail and his skillful storytelling make “Sheridan’s Secret Mission” a compelling read from start to finish. The author’s vivid descriptions bring the post-war era to life, immersing the reader in a world of political intrigue, espionage, and betrayal. The characters are well-developed and engaging, each with their own motivations and secrets that add depth to the narrative. Cwiklik’s alternate timeline offers a fresh perspective on the Civil War and its aftermath, challenging readers to consider the impact of small decisions and hidden agendas on the course of history. The result is a gripping and thought-provoking novel that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

[Brant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shortly after the Civil War ended, Union General Philip Sheridan travelled south to Louisiana, where he witnessed the desperate measures Southern whites were willing to take to ensure political power. With the rise of paramilitary groups hellbent on seizing control from the majority black electorate, these groups used terror and violence, even massacring freedmen and women, to prevent change and undermine Northern efforts to rebuild an equitable South.

This wasn’t the first book I’ve read on the subject, and it wasn’t my favorite. The author is a good writer, with great control of prose, but the writing lacked personality and the long sentences became tedious.

[Chet Slonina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great Post Civil War read that gives us the researched information that really Government didn't change after the Civil War and the separation of the Federal Government and the State Government was still in question. Sheridan was a well respected General that was good at getting the task at hand done. The South was fill of pitfalls and the need for strong and fastidious rule but was slow to change with faltering and one sided points in time that seemed too numerous to grasp hold of and solve. President Grant seemed to have his heart in the right place as The south was definitely in for a slow upward climb as prejudices were everywhere and with everyone.

[Ralph Poore · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a solid retelling of the impact of failed Reconstruction policies after the US Civil War, especially through the lens of Louisiana politics. I found the constant time shifts as the author added backstory to the trail of events frustrating. I would have preferred a more linear structure with minimal fill-ins of the individuals who played key roles. And I agree with other reviewers that the title focusing on Sheridan outsizes his role and yet he only serves as the bookends to the larger story. Still, I learned a lot about this maddening era of US politics and recognize the ghosts of racism that are only too alive and well to this day.

[Patrick Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generally, this book focuses on efforts to protect freedmen in New Orleans from political violence late in Reconstruction. But it also discusses very well how we pretty much failed them and, in many ways, set the stage for many of the horrible things that freed slaves and their descendants had to endure for the next 100 years (until the 1964 Civi Rights Act). Though much remains to be done 60 years on from that. Unfortunately, at times it gets bogged down in unnecessary detail and becomes a bit dry and boring. Still well worth a read, I just think it could have been so much better.

[Monte Lamb · Rating 4 out of 5]

While General Sheridan's mission to New Orleans is part of this story, the broader story is how the Southern states reverted to all white governments after the Civil War. It largely focuses on Louisiana but does include other states. When you see what happened it is difficult to believe how it evolved and why reconstruction of the seceded states failed. It is a good book and gives a good picture of the times.

[Mary Fancher · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent review of the failure of Reconstruction

I started this book with hesitation that it would simply be a restatement of facts I already knew, but early on I found I was mistaken. Well written and researched, this book provided me with the underpinnings of the failure of Reconstruction, including the prime role that the Supreme Court played in its demise. I breezed through Robert Cwiklik’s tale from beginning to end and can’t recommend it enough.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cwiklik does a decent job of explaining how the violence in Louisiana and Mississippi during reconstruction had an impact on the ultimate move away from a firm troop supported reconstruction to allowing the former Confederate leadership to reemerge and put the Black Codes and Jim Cow laws in place in part due to a few bad SCOTUS.

[Bryant Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you want to read an ok book on Americas coup d’etat, this is an ok book. If you want to read a book about Sheridan. This is not the book. He is an idol character at best and hardly mentioned in a meaningful way. I had high hopes for this book, but was disappointed.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is more about Reconstruction in Louisiana.