General Sheridan Stands by His Dispatches

Nast draws General Philip Sheridan—stocky, mustachioed, sword at his side—standing before posted broadsides that reprint his own military dispatches to Secretary of War Belknap. The central placard asks "Who Are the Banditti?" and answers: the Armed White Leagues of Louisiana and Mississippi, who burned schoolhouses, murdered Black voters, and seized state arms. A smaller cone labeled "Banditti" drives the point home. In the background, a soldier stands guard beside a sign reading "Military Commission." The caption quotes General Sherman vouching for Sheridan's prudence. Sheridan had proposed trying White League members before military tribunals, and Congress balked. Nast backs him without reservation, framing federal enforcement of Black civil rights as simple law and order.