But crushing the South and wanting its money are two different things. If the “Yankees” could foresee that they’d win the war, how come they didn’t foresee just how destructive the war would be? Or was all that destruction part of the plan?
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The destruction took place in the south ....deliberately! Sherman cut a swathe of destruction that could still be seen in my youth. “Reconstruction” finished the job and the carpetbaggers and their cronies were simply a forerunner of what we are experiencing today with BIG government. The “Civil War” was anything but civil. Today’s State’s Rights are practically nonexistent. All thanks to the low life lawyer Lincoln.
In fact, it was the most "civil" Civil War in human history, in terms of the death and destruction to civilian populations.
Compare, for example, with World War Two: massive destruction and total deaths around 75 million, of whom two thirds were civilians.
By contrast, our Civil War was a walk in the park, a day at the beach...