Following the over-riding of his veto of the Military Reconstruction Act in the Congress just over a week before, President Johnson, as required, named the commanders of the five military districts laid out under the measure. Major General John Schofield was to command the First District, made up of Virginia; Major General Daniel Sickles to oversee the Second containing North and South Carolina; Major General John Pope was placed in charge of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia in the Third; Major General E.O.C. Ord was given the Fourth District of Arkansas and Mississippi; and Major General Philip Sheridan was placed in command of the Fifth, comprising Louisiana and Texas. All appointments did not end well and changes were made during the course of the year. (By John Osborne)
William L. Richter, The A to Z of the Civil War and Reconstruction (Lanham Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2009), xlv-xlvi.
