4. The Confederacy They supported slavery, tried to smash the Union, and committed some of the worst war crimes the US has ever known.
Although the Confederacy did some appalling things, the human cost of the Union's “total war” was staggering.
The threat of sexual violence loomed large over the occupied South.
Between 1863 and 1865 alone, the Union was forced to prosecute 450 of its own troops on rape charges.
Disease and starvation also took their toll.
Hundreds of thousands of freed slaves starved to death in the shattered South. Outbreaks of cholera killed thousands more.
The entire South was devastated, economically and physically.