Very good points, some I have not thought of, and some where of my own beliefs. The control of the radical republicans is, I think, the major contributor to the treatment of Southern civilians. ALL Southerners, Unionist or Secessionist were mistreated by all types in this war but eventually it was the continued and deep policy of hate of these people, the organized Northern radicalist, towards the Southern culture that caused so much misery over these last 140 years.

One such example in the war. General Butler, one of the worst of these politically approved radicals, had not had a chance to use his brand new Gatlin guns in combat and was determined to get them into action. Late in the war he used them for the first time. His target was not a battle in progress, but a group of unarmed Confederates that as engaged in trading with Union soldiers. This according to a book I read on the history of the Gatlin gun as witnessed by a junior Union officer.

This subject has got me motivated to catalog all Southern towns and cities destroyed and how they were destroyed. One interesting note, in almost every case of a Southern town burning the excuses are always "it was the Confederates who started it" or "the Union soldiers did not intend to burn it", "the Union soldiers tried desperatly to put the fire out", etc. This I find humorous.

One of the major causes of the decline of Southern prosperty and long term economic depression in the South was the destruction of its towns and cities during the Civil War. It also contributed to the anti-black politics that controlled the South for as many decades. The South has changed so much in the last thirty years, it is hard to imagine for many young Southerners how bad it was before the economic turn of the late 1970s.

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David Upton