reconstruction were paid by the state treasurers.

Any attempt to favor the Confederate soldiers was frowned upon. Laws providing
wooden legs and free education for crippled Confederates were suspended.
Militia organizations and military schools were forbidden. No uniform might be
worn, no parades were permitted, no memorial and historical societies were to
be organized, and no meeting of any kind could be held without a permit. The
attempt to control the press resulted in what one general called "a horrible
uproar." Editors were forbidden to express themselves too strongly against
reconstruction; public advertising and printing were awarded only to those
papers actively supporting reconstruction. Several newspapers were suppressed,
a notable example being the "Tuscaloosa Independent Monitor", whose editor,
Ryland Randolph, was a picturesque figure in Alabama journalism and a leader
in the Ku Klux Klan.

The military administration was thorough and, as a whole, honest and
efficient. With fewer than ten thousand soldiers, the generals maintained
order and carried on the reconstruction of the South. The whites made no
attempt at resistance, though they were irritated by military rule and
resented the loss of self-government. But most Southerners preferred the rule
of the army to the alternative reign of the carpetbagger, scalawag, and Negro.
The extreme radicals at the North, on the other hand, were disgusted at the
conservative policy of the generals. The apathy of the whites at the beginning
of the military reconstruction excited surprise on all sides. Not only was
there no violent opposition, but for a few weeks there was no opposition at
all. The civil officials were openly unsympathetic, and the newspapers voiced
dissent not untouched with disgust; others simply could not take the situation
seriously because it seemed so absurd; many leaders were indifferent, while
others among them, Generals Lee, Beauregard, and Longstreet, and Governor
Patton--without approving the policy, advised the whites to cooperate with the