Using the authority of the Military Reconstruction Act almost as soon as he had been appointed, Major-General Philip Sheridan, the military governor of the Fifth Military District, had acted swiftly to remove from office any Louisiana or Texas officials who he felt were obstructing reconstruction. On this day, Sheridan included sitting Texas governor James Throckmorton in that number, despite his recent handy election victory and replaced him with Elisha Pease, who had been the loser in that election. Such ardor in pursuing reconstruction made Sheridan a hated target of national Democrats and soon after, on August 17, 1867, President Johnson removed Sheridan himself. (By John Osborne)
Joseph G. Dawson III, Army Generals and Reconstruction: Louisiana 1862-1877 (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1982), 56.
