Disunion follows the Civil War as it unfolded.
On Christmas Eve 1864, Abraham Lincoln wrote to Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks in New Orleans to reassure him that he was master “in regard to re-organizing a State government for Louisiana” and “in regard to the military matters of the Department.” Frustrated at the slow pace of Banks’s reorganization efforts, the anxious president also entreated his commander of the Department of the Gulf to “give us a free-state re-organization of Louisiana, in the shortest possible time.”
Banks had already been in New Orleans for nearly two years, having replaced the notorious Benjamin “Spoons” Butler in late 1862. One of the Union’s many political generals, Banks was a former speaker of the House of Representatives and Massachusetts governor who had yet to distinguish himself on the battlefield (and never would). His less-than-stirring performance during the Shenandoah Valley campaigns had earned him the sobriquet “Nothing Positive” Banks. One modern day biographer characterized Banks as a man who dealt “in compromises and reversals, catch phrases, weasel words, and politicians’ tricks.” On the other hand, noted the ever-observant Navy secretary, Gideon Welles, although Banks probably lacked “the energy, power or ability of Butler,” he was “less reckless and unscrupulous.” Read more…