Gregory P Downs & Scott Nesbit, Mapping Occupation (2015)

This interactive map was created to tell the story of the U.S. Army’s occupation of the South during Reconstruction, while also visualizing the unequal distribution of areas where Black southerners could reach soldiers to help them assert their rights. Users can view the location and size of troops, zones of occupation and access and railroads connecting them, as well as the percent of the Black population and voting results throughout the South. The creators of Mapping Occupation, Gregory P. Downs and Scott Nesbit, argue that the role the Army played during Reconstruction has often been misunderstood or forgotten, as Southern-sympathizing historians in the early 20th century created the narrative of a militant “bayonet rule” in the South. They argue that U.S. power existed where the government could enforce its laws through the Army, and that Army installations formed the centers of patchwork zones of occupation, linked and extended by the southern rail network as the Army responded to political pressure and events on the ground. Army soldiers contributed to the early successes of Reconstruction in numerous ways, such as convincing planters slavery was done, overturning local laws and court cases that infringed on freed individuals' rights, and helping to build a new form of federal power on the ground. Downs and Nesbit assert that while there was a significant occupation of the South by the Army, they weren’t there to rule but to help stabilize a region that had been damaged by the war.