Well said.

I'd like to add that the quality of roads varied from place to place depending on the attention of the local road overseers and the help they were able to secure. Of course a major difference between our Southern ancestors and their neighbors north of the Ohio River had to do with Southern indifference to regular work. Those of you who are familiar with "Cracker Culture: Celtic Ways in the Old South," by Grady McWhiney, know what I'm saying.

A recent author who I cannot name at the moment attempted to provide an understanding of why Northern soldiers were so quick to destroy farms and homes in the South. Based on the letters and diaries of Northern soldiers, he came to the conclusion that they were used to neat and orderly farms in their home states, well-fenced and obviously the products of much hard work.

South of the Ohio River they saw quite the opposite. Southern farmers were often not particular about the appearance of their homes and farms as long as they were tolerably comfortable and productive. Hogs were allowed to roam free in the woods so fences weren't nearly as important as they were in the North. Southern farms usually looked "trashy" to Northern soldiers. They usually admired the farmland but disdained what Southern farmers had done with it. As we have seen, disrespect produced vandalism and random acts of destruction wherever Union armies happened to be.