The Civil War had already begun, and Virginia was of necessity the battle-ground. Of the six great impacts made upon the Con federacy, four were upon Virginia soil: the first Manassas cam paign (186r), the Peninsula battles and battles around Richmond (1862), second Manassas (1862), Fredericksburg and Chancellors ville (1862-63) and the great Wilderness-Petersburg series of attacks (1864-65).
With the surrender of the Confederate army under Gen. Lee to Grant at Appomattox the task of reconstruction began. Governor Francis H. Pierpoint set up in Richmond a government based upon the Lincoln plan and supported by President Johnson, who, however, was in conflict with the majority in Congress, which passed over his veto a radical Reconstruction Act. According to the new policy Virginia, on March 2, 1867, became military dis trict No. 1. Gen. John M. Schofield was put in charge, and under his authority a Constitutional Convention was summoned which bestowed the suffrage upon the former slaves. These, led by a small group of whites, that had come into the State with the invading armies, ratified the 14th and 15th amendments to the Federal Constitution and governed the community until 1869. Then the secessionists and Union men of 1861 united and regained control. Virginia was readmitted to the Union on Jan. 26, 187o.
The 20 years following the end of the war in 1865 were years of humiliation, poverty and political strife; also years of economic readjustment. In many cases farms were deserted by their owners, who moved to the cities or left the State entirely. The general poverty was augmented by a State debt of over $45,000,000 that had been contracted before the Civil War for works of internal improvement. By a bill passed in 1871 two-thirds of the debt was funded into bonds, and the remaining one-third was allotted to West Virginia as her fair share, though that State refused to admit the obligation. For two decades the debt settlement was the chief issue in Virginia politics and the main subject of legislative delib eration. Educational and other improvements, badly needed, were allowed to drift in the meantime. Final settlement was not arrived at until 1891-92. A bill establishing a State-wide system of public free schools was passed in 187o. Some educational progress had been made when the payment of the public debt began to absorb the school revenue. From 1870 to 1879 $1,544,765 was diverted from school funds for this purpose. In the latter year enrolment, in the schools dropped from 202,244 to 108,074 and in some coun ties every school was closed. After 1882 the State began to repay this money, and schools reopened, but their work was still handi capped by irregular attendance and lack of good teachers.