Abstract:
This article looks at the impact of a temporary department of North Carolina, enacted by Union Secretary of War Stanton, which was created to facilitate federal operations in the Carolinas and was run by Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield and subject to General William T. Sherman's orders. This department continued beyond the short period for which it was designed and left Schofield in charge of troops in North Carolina and then in charge of the transition to reconstruction, thus affecting how the machinery for reconstruction-era judiciary was to be established.