[docmcb]

There was an interesting asymetry in war aims that's often overlooked. The Confederacy certainly had preservation of slavery as one of its original war aims, while the US, as Lincoln made very clear in his letter to William Lloyd Garrison, did NOT have abolition of slavery as one of its original war aims. Obviously abolition became a major Union war aim. One can also argue that the belated vote of the Confederate Congress to enlist slave soldiers -- it being well understood that you can't give men guns and keep them in total servitude in the long run -- indicates that by 1865 the Confederacy put independence ahead of preserving slavery. So both sides changed, in opposite directions, over the four years of the war.

[Non-Sequitur]

So both sides changed, in opposite directions, over the four years of the war.

Not quite. That legislation to enlist slaves, which wasn't passed until Frbruary of 1865, did not offer freedom to slaves conscripted for service. It left the matter of manumission for service up to the individual states.

[rebelyell]

Give it up. N-S is an apologist for that tyrant and knows full well his shortcomings. In his book, lincoln is the benevolent saviour of blacks. Nevermind that he thought them inferior, wanted to send them back to Africa and stated time and again if he could save the union by freeing none of them, he would do it.