Why did the federal government send troops to the south during reconstruction?

Answer 1

The Union army was stationed in the five Southern districts to ensure that they honored the requirements of Reconstruction. These requirements included ratifying the Fourteenth Amendment and giving voting rights without racial restrictions.

Answer 2

To impose to the former Confederate States (with exception of Tennessee, which had already been readmitted to the Union in 1866) the Congress' Reconstruction Plan by diktat. These States were grouped into five military districts ruled by a military governor with following purposes:

once Law and Order had been established, the states were to organise conventions to amend their constitutions making them conform to the Constitution of the United States , included the Fourteenth Amendment.

After completation of these steps the conforming states could be readmitted to the Union and to be represented in the Federal Congress.

The measure was necessary because the aforesaid states insisted to persist with their provisional governments, which were actually continuations of the Confederate regimes.

Answer 3

The decision to use Federal forces came as the culmination of two existential crises to the American Republic. The first was maintaining the supremacy of the Constitution and primacy of federal governance. The second was preserving the territorial, political and economic integrity of the Republic against a devastating and catastrophic partition. The issue of slavery indeed existed, but they were secondary to the economic and political questions that drove the initial acts of war.

Answer 4

to help protect freedmen (freed Africans) and keep the peace, Basically they were a police force till the South got back on its feet.

Answer 5

The war had left them with nothing