The Senate lost 25 members during the Civil War and the House lost 60, from withdrawal, expulsion, or failure to appear. Reseating of Southern members after the war was tied to larger issues of Reconstruction, such as rights of black citizens, revised state constitutions, and the status of former Confederate soldiers. By 1867 only Tennessee had regained representation.
Publications of the U.S. Government, National Archives and Records Administration
House Seating Chart, Congressional Directory, 39th Congress, 2nd Session, 1867
Reconstruction of the Union
After the Civil War, Congress and the executive branch struggled over when and how to bring the former Confederate states back into the Union. The Joint Committee on Reconstruction—established by Congress in December 1865 to investigate under what terms the seceded states should regain their congressional representation—strongly disagreed with President Andrew Johnson’s efforts toward quick readmission. After a yearlong study, the fifteen-member committee outlined qualifications for readmission, including ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
The whole fabric of Southern society must be changed and never can it be done if this opportunity is lost. . . . If the South is ever to be made a safe republic, let her lands be cultivated by the toil of the owners, or the free labor of intelligent citizens.
Thaddeus Stevens, “Reconstruction” Speech, September 6, 1865
The Senate lost 25 members during the Civil War and the House lost 60, from withdrawal, expulsion, or failure to appear. Reseating of Southern members after the war was tied to larger issues of Reconstruction, such as rights of black citizens, revised state constitutions, and the status of former Confederate soldiers. By 1867 only Tennessee had regained representation.
Publications of the U.S. Government, National Archives and Records Administration
