Introduction: the Republican tradition, military occupation, and Civil War history -- Conflicting cultures and the Mexican-American War -- Policy, process, and the landscape of Union occupation during the Civil War -- Union soldiers and the symbol of a standing army of occupation -- Informal economies and the strains of Republican disinterestedness -- The irregular war, guerrilla violence, and counterinsurgency -- Lincoln's proclamation and the white racial assumptions of wartime occupation -- Racial authority, cultural change, and black wartime military occupation -- Republicanism, race, and the problem of postwar occupation -- Military reconstruction and the fate of union