The First Military District of the U.S. Army was one of five temporary administrative units of the U.S. War Department that existed in the American South. The district was stipulated by the Reconstruction Acts during the Reconstruction period following the American Civil War. It only included Virginia, and was the smallest of the five military districts in terms of size. The district was successively commanded by Brigadier General John Schofield (1867–1868), Colonel George Stoneman (1868–1869) and Brigadier General Edward Canby (1869–1870). Creation of The First Military District In March 1867, Radical Republicans in Congress became frustrated with President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction policies, which, they believed, allowed too many former Confederate officials to hold public office in the South. Politically empowered Democratic Party politicians who were former Confederates would obstruct the civil rights of newly freed African Americans. For Republicans these rights, which would allow the antebellum ideology of abolition to translate to real freedom, were critical. In response, Congressional Republicans passed a multitude of bills furthering strict Reconstruction policies known as the Reconstruction Acts, the most important of which being the Act to Provide for the More Efficient Government of the Rebel States. This act, passed on March 2, 1867, divided the former Confederate States (except for Tennessee, after it ratified the 14th Amendment) into five separate military districts. The Reconstruction Acts required that each former Confederate state hold a Constitutional Convention, adopt a new State Constitution, and ratify the 14th Amendment before rejoining the Union. The act designated Virginia as The First Military District (also referred to as Military District No. 1). Each of these districts fell under the command of former Union Army general officers to supervise the replacement of undesirable former Confederate officials and use military force to guarantee the safety of liberated African Americans and maintain peace. However, it soon became apparent that the appointed army commanders could only act as peacekeepers until the president unveiled a proper Reconstruction policy. The military governors supervising Military District No. 1 were Major General Schofield, Major General Stoneman, and finally Brigadier General Canby until Virginia rejoined the Union in January 1870, which officially ended Reconstruction in Virginia. Under military rule Under General Schofield President Johnson first appointed General John Schofield as the first military governor of the district. Schofield commanded the Federal Army of the Ohio and had served with General Sherman during the last year of the war.