The start of the end of Reconstruction in the South happened during the 1874 election season.

That’s what author Robert Cwiklik argues in his new book "Sheridan's Secret Mission: How the South Won the War After the Civil War," published by Harper Collins this year.

It includes the story of how Union General and war hero Phillip Sheridan and President Ulysses S. Grant fell into hot water when they moved to stop a group of white men from overthrowing the democratically elected Louisiana state government while new legislators were being installed in January 1875.

As public opinion shifted, President Grant felt Americans would no longer support the kind of federal actions needed to guarantee voting and Civil rights for Black Americans.

Guest
-Robert Cwiklik is the author of "Sheridan's Secret Mission: How the South Won the War After the Civil War" from Harper Collins, and was an editor at The Wall Street Journal for more than 15 years.