Reconstruction ruined the South for a century after the war; the Carthaginian peace handed down by Thaddeus Stevens and his ilk fundamentally altered the nature of our Federal system in a bad way, and Lincoln, had he lived, would have in my opinion pursued a more moderate course that would have left a better legacy both in reconciliation and balancing the power of the Federal government with that of the states.
you are right reconstruction continued on into the 50’s.and to a degree to this day.
You might want to look up what the Romans actually did to Carthage before assigning that term to Reconstruction.
The aftermath of our WBTS was the mildest of any great civil war in history.
Unless you’d care to provide an example of one that was milder?
For example, exactly one Confederate was executed after the war for war crimes.
In Spain, which had a war in which the population, duration and number of dead is not dissimilar, 50,000 were executed in the first five years and at least another 150,000 died from mistreatment in prison.
I agree. As Lincoln had implored Grant at Appomattox, “Let him up easy.”
(It probably didn’t hinder as much either the Grant and Lee were both West Pointers.)