Radical Reconstruction I believe that the Radical Republican's Reconstruction was unsuccessful. First of all, under the Reconstruction, the South was divided into 5 military territories, which was placed under a general to oversee the new constitutions. Since the South was occupied by the military, the unionists, the Republicans, and the state government regained power. A few white Southerners, who didn't like the idea of blacks voting and taking part in the government, turned to terrorism and violence through secret societies such as the Ku Klux Klan. In 1873, many Northern reformers lost interest in Reconstructi