A period of the history of theUnited States from 1865 to 1877, during which the nation tried to resolve the status of the ex-Confederate states, the ex-Confederate leaders, and the Freedmen (ex-slaves) after theAmerican Civil War.
When contextually referred to directly as a time period, the definite article is more commonly used; as opposed to when the linguistic context is ‘the process of rebuilding’, in which it is more common to use no article. However, these rules are not very rigidly followed, and article usage varies significantly by speaker.
