[central_va]

What never made sense to me is that the states had to be readmitted to the union. If they never recognized secession what was the purpose for readmission to the union?

Why wasn't ONE southerner tried for treason? Col. Wirz was tried for conspiracy and murder, not teason.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

‘Why wasn’t ONE southerner tried for treason?’

Actually quite a few southerners were tried for treason. The irregular pro-Union troops from non-slaveholoding regions of the South, e.g. the ‘Taylor County Rangers’ of Perry. FL, when captured, were tried for treason to their confederate state governments and hanged.