It was no more and no less than a rebellion against the authority of the United States which should have been put down without mercy shown.
Perhaps Thaddeus was right; we should have punished all former Confederates and treated the South like conquered land.
How anyone can defend a rebellion in the name of the right of a state to maintain slavery within its borders is beyond me.
It was no more and no less than a rebellion against the authority of the United States which should have been put down without mercy shown. It was...and it was. I wouldn't wish Sherman's march on anyone, and I wouldn't have changed a thing if I were in his shoes. As he said, "You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out." The south started the hostilities and they reaped the results.