In the history of the United States, the term Reconstruction Era has two senses: the first covers the entire history of the entire U.S. from 1865–1877 following the Civil War; the second sense focuses on the transformation of the Southern United States from 1863 to 1877, as directed by Washington, with the reconstruction of state and society.
From 1863 to 1869, Presidents Lincoln and Johnson took a moderate position designed to bring the South back to normal as soon as possible, while the Radical Republicans as they called themselves) used Congress to block the president, impose harsh terms, and upgrade the rights of the Freedmen (the ex-slave. The president prevailed until the election of 1866, which enabled the Radicals to take control of policy, remove from power the ex-Confederates, and enfranchise the Freedmen. A Republican coalition came to power in nearly all the southern states and set out to radically transform the society, with support from the Army and the Freedman's Bureau. Conservative white Democrats, alleging widespread corruption, counterattacked and regained power in each state by 1877, often with violence. The Freedmen became second class citizens, while most Southern whites became embittered toward the North and formed a Democratic "Solid South."
The deployment of the U.S. military was central to the establishment of Southern Reconstructed state governments and the suppression of violence against black and white voters. Reconstruction was a remarkable chapter in the story of American freedom, but most historians consider it a failure because the region became a poverty-stricken backwater and the Freedmen in the end were at best second-class citizens. Historian Eric Foner argues, "What remains certain is that Reconstruction failed, and that for blacks its failure was a disaster whose magnitude cannot be obscured by the genuine accomplishments that did endure."
