Dominic Sandbrook

Yes, exactly.

So this is now the great nightmare for the white people of Middle Tennessee, what Alan Trelease calls the ultimate horror, that their towns are going to be patrolled by black men with guns who are going to get revenge for all the years of slavery.

And actually, the funny thing is,

They blink.

It's their white supremacist ex-Confederates who crack because Nathan Bedford Forrest and George Gordon lead all their mates to go to Nashville and to see the governor.

And they say, fine.

We'll call off the dogs, as it were.

There'll be no more violence.

And they make a public promise that they will help the authorities maintain the peace and order of the state.

And actually, Gordon, General Gordon, gives a rally in Pulaski, the homeland of the Klan.

And he says, in future, we should obey the laws and uphold a spirit of peace and harmony.

And actually, at first, it seems to work.

So it seems that the tension dissipates.

And actually, Brownlow's hard line has paid off.

However, in the other states of the Confederacy, all this time clan support has been building.

So the clan is now heading towards having dens in perhaps a quarter of all counties in the former Confederate South and probably about 150,000 members.

And don't forget, we're in the summer of 1868 at this point.

And now the stakes are becoming very high.

A reminder, the future of the Republic for the last year or so has been in the hands of the radical Republicans in Congress, and the whole Confederacy, with the exception of Tennessee, has been under military occupation.

But on the 3rd of November, 1868, the American people will have a chance to turn back the clock because this will be the first presidential election since the Civil War.