There was plenty of bad feeling to go around in 1865. Sherman
had inflicted lots of pain in Georgia. John Wilkes Booth had assassinated Abraham
Lincoln. Plenty of white southerners who
had enjoyed being superior at law to black slaves were disappointed. The subdued southern states were occupied by
the US Army. The massive casualties of the war, 600,000 men, inflicted great
pain on many many American families.
But, the Civil War
had abolished slavery. The southern
states attempt to pull out of the Union and set up their
own country was defeated. These things
stuck.
The part that is not
told by the history books I have read, and I have read quite a few, is how all
the bad feelings were, if not defeated, at least reduced a lot. By World War I times, say fifty years after
the end of the Civil War, the old south had
been converted into as loyal and patriotic part of the United States as any
other part, and in fact more loyal and patriotic than many other parts.
It is difficult to
imagine the course of world history if the Confederacy had survived or reappeared
and made good its departure from the Union. Certainly all the bad feelings from 1865
would have contributed mightily to such an outcome. The Cold War with the Soviets would be all
sorts of difficult for Washington DC
had it been required to deal with a not very friendly Confederacy whose
territory started at the city limits of DC.