TIL in September 1866, O. O. Howard requested that assistant commissioners in the readmitted Southern states compile reports of "murders and outrages" to catalog the extent of violence, to prove reports of a peaceful South were wrong, and to argue in Congress for the necessity of martial law.

https://www.psu.edu/news/liberal-arts/story/historian-explores-racial-violence-…
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1gm7azs/til_in_september_1866_o_o_howard_requested_that/