Life on the Virginia Home Front > Federal Military Occupation

Federal Military Occupation

Throughout the region of federal military occupation, the presence of garrisoned soldiers brought change for the worse for Virginia secessionists. Local governments collapsed and Union commanders instituted military rule to maintain order; they replaced civil law by a more rigid military version. Residents were subjected to curfews, confiscation of property, and sometimes exile. They were cut off from their usual sources of goods and denied access to a free marketplace in which to sell. The quantity of goods was further diminished due to consumption by the occupying forces: food, fuel, clothing, medicine, and other basic commodities became less available to residents. Scarcity of provisions in turn generated unmanageable inflation. In Alexandria and Norfolk, new economies replaced the old ones, as local business became the purview of northern opportunists welcomed to the state by Union commanders. Secessionists living in those cities found the restrictions to their civil liberties, the disruption to their lifestyle, and the corruption intolerable.

Regions within the Region

Life under occupation was remarkably varied. When two-thirds of the residents of Alexandria abandoned their city to federal forces that occupied the town in mass, it inevitably underwent a dramatic alteration. Life on the remote Eastern Shore, however, continued largely uninterrupted. In Norfolk, Union commanders clashed with strong white resistance in a tense environment where draconian restrictions were put into place by a succession of corrupt Federal officers. In the far western counties, forty-eight in number, only a few towns were garrisoned. Consequently, in so vast and rugged an expanse where Union troop numbers were never high, federal control was lax. Outside the garrisoned towns, unionists and secessionists both fell victim to the almost random violence of Union and secessionist marauding parties.

Learn more about:   Alexandria   |   The Eastern Shore   |   Norfolk and vicinity

Alexandria

Two-thirds of the population of Alexandria fled the approach of the Union army. Businesses, government, schools, and churches shut down. The town was transformed into a troop base (with thousands of soldiers encamped in huts), a supply base (that launched campaigns into northern and eastern Virginia), and a haven for Union casualties (with 14 hospitals plus convalescent camps). At the very start of the war, following the arrival of soldiers and profiteers, drunkenness, robbery, and murder began to soar, as did rents and market prices. The more vocal secessionists who remained in town were imprisoned. Runaway slaves found refuge, and eventually blacks almost equaled whites in number. According to one 1863 report, Alexandria was then home to 3,000 contrabands (fugitive slaves). By 1864, 7,000 were present.

Read more contemporary accounts

Pictured: Alexandria, Virginia (vicinity). Battery Rodgers overlooking the Potomac near Jones' Point, c. 1861–69 (Library of Congress)

The Eastern Shore

In this remote area, farming saw little interruption as Union officers made efforts not to disrupt slavery and thereby lose the support of unionist slaveholders. Trade and business continued much as usual. However, Union general John Dix complained that local unionists failed to step forward to convert secessionists to his side. Late in the war, Union general Benjamin Butler quartered black troops on the Eastern Shore, to the dismay of white inhabitants.

Read more contemporary accounts

Pictured: "A Family Party" (Eastern Shore), in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 1879
(Virginia Historical Society, 2003.28.16)

Norfolk and vicinity

In the spring of 1861, the port of Norfolk was blockaded by the Union fleet. A year later, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and the lower York-James Peninsula surrendered to federal occupation. Martial law was proclaimed and legal rights were denied in both civil and military court. Public buildings and streets fell into disrepair, schools and churches closed, and one-third of the city's houses were seized. Supplies dwindled and the economy of Norfolk collapsed. While in command in 1862–63, Gen. John Dix reversed the blockade's ban on trade and established a northern monopoly under his sole direction and to his financial benefit. All too quickly, profiteers crowded the city. Beginning in November 1863 and through early 1865, Gen. Benjamin Butler commanded, orchestrating his own corrupt and oppressive regime by levying tolls on goods and travel, requiring the purchase of business licenses, and denouncing "19/20ths of the citizens [as] disloyal." Runaway slaves swelled the population; in the process they provided valuable information to the Union army as to Confederate earthworks and troop placement. Some former slaves found employment with the Union army, but often without pay. Abandoned properties near Hampton were designated "government farms" and worked by freedpeople.

Read more contemporary accounts

Pictured: Norfolk, Va. Ruined buildings at Navy Yard, James Gardner, December 1864 (Library of Congress)

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