[lentulusgracchus]

And he would have been dead and the South would have lost the war any. <sic>

Ah, but it would have transformed the war and the entire postwar period in ways you cannot begin to grasp, Deepthink. Kill our beloved Marse Bobby, and you'd never have had a peace, much less the era of national reconciliation that Bill Clinton has now terminated for political advantage with his "break the [Finkelstein] box" strategy to which demonization of Southern whites is key, capitalizing on and "leveraging" earlier periods of demonization in the civil-rights and00000antebellum periods and going all the way back to the 17th century, when Congregationalist ministers' pens dripped venom and ice as they described the luxurious living and dining of the prelacy-ridden Episcopalian Tidewater planters.

You'd have had to occupy, literally occupy, the South for 150 years, getting shot at the entire time. What World Wars? Your federal heavies would have been so preoccupied with "security operations" in the South, you'd have had to beg off two world wars and Korea to see to them. And you'd still have been getting shot from behind every big rock, gully, or tree. Gun control? Make me laugh.

Think about it yourself.

[jmacusa]

Davis wanted to continue the war in guerrilla fashion. Lee, realizing he had virtually no army left and seeing the devastation the North had visited on the South already knew the jig was up and at least had the sense to surrender. Think about this: When Grant was leaving for Appomattox Lincoln said to him “Let them up easy’’. He wasn't looking to make the South suffer anymore than it had already. He could have had Davis and Lee hung as treasonous rebels or at the very least given them lengthy prison terms. But he didn't. He allowed those soldiers who had horses to keep them knowing they would be needed for spring plowing and allowed Southern officers to keep their side arms and swords.