Changes

Banks were fewer in the South, and most plantation profits went to purchases of more slaves and more land.  

Banks were fewer in the South, and most plantation profits went to purchases of more slaves and more land.  

== Legacy - Physical/Military ==

== Legacy of destruction==

The principal physical legacy of the Confederacy was mass destruction.  Four years of Civil War killed at least 620,000 soldiers (counting deaths from disease as well as in battle), of whom approximately 260,000 were from the Confederacy.  This represented a much larger fraction (slightly over one quarter) of the Confederacy's military age free men than was lost by the Union.

An unknown number of civilians also died, in part as a result of the campaign of systematic destruction of the infrastructure in late 1864 and early 1865 by Union General [[William Tecumseh Sherman]] which helped not only to destroy the will of the Confederacy to fight, but literally to destroy the parts of the civilian economy useful o the war effort. Severe damage was inflicted on both urban and rural communities in the South, and hundreds of thousands of people became refugees.  The exigencies of [[total war]] had led to the destruction of much Southern infrastructure, in particular [[railroads]], long before 1864.

An unknown number of [[civilians]] also died, in part as a result of the campaign of organized plunder in late 1864 and early 1865 by the troops of [[Union]] [[General]] [[William Tecumseh Sherman]] which helped not only to destroy the will of the Confederacy to fight, but literally to destroy the [[infrastructure]] of the Confederacy. Severe damage was inflicted on both urban and rural communities in the South, and hundreds of thousands of people became refugees.  The exigencies of [[total war]] had led to the destruction of much Southern infrastructure, in particular [[railroads]], long before 1864.

Upon the Confederate defeat, General Lee on April 9, 1865 ruled out continuing to fight as [[insurgents]]; to do otherwise was folly. The Union was prepared to use techniques it had learned in Missouri: move all the hostile civilians into concentration camps, thus cutting off supplies to the insurgents, and then hunt down the rebels bands one by one.

Most of the war was fought in Virginia and Tennessee, but every state was affected. There was little military action in Texas and Florida. Of 645 counties in 9 Confederate states (exclusing Texas and Florida), there was Union military action in 56%, containing 63% of the whites and 64% of the slaves in 1860; however when the action took place, some people had fled to safer areas, so the exact population exposed to war is unknown.<ref> Paul F. Paskoff, "Measures of War: A Quantitative Examination of the Civil War's Destructiveness in the Confederacy,"  ''Civil War History'' 54.1 (2008) 35-62</ref>

The Confederacy in 1861 had 297 towns and cities with 835,000 people; of these 162 with 681,000 people were at one point occupied by Union forces. Eleven were destroyed or severely damaged by war action, including Atlanta (with an 1860 population of 9,554), Charleston, Columbia, and Richmond (with prewar populations of 40,522, at least 8,052, and 37,910, respectively); the eleven contained 115,916 people in the 1860 census, or 14% of the urban South. Historians have not estimated their population when they were invaded. The number of people who lived in the destroyed places represented just over 1% of the Confederacy's population.  In addition, 45 court houses were burned (out of 830).<ref> Paul F. Paskoff, "Measures of War: A Quantitative Examination of the Civil War's Destructiveness in the Confederacy," ''Civil War History'' 54.1 (2008) 35-62</ref>

The South's agriculture was not highly mechanized. The value of farm implements and machinery in the 1860 Census was $81 million; by 1870, there was 40% less, of $48 million worth. Many old tools had broken through heavy use and could not be replaced; even repairs were difficult.

The Union and Confederacy launched the first seagoing [[ironclad]] warships during the course of the war.  With the possible exception of the [[Prussia]]ns and [[Great Britain|British]], it is unlikely that any country of comparable population and technology in the 1860s could have resisted the Union onslaught for as long as the Confederacy did{{fact}}. Upon the Confederate defeat, General Lee on April 9, 1865 ruled out continuing to fight as [[insurgents]]; although it can be argued that this only delayed the inevitable failure of [[Reconstruction]]{{fact}}, it also made physical rebuilding possible in a way it would not be in the latter stages of civil wars in other countries in the [[20th century]].

Railroad mileage was of course mostly in rural areas. The war followed the rails, and over two-thirds of the rails and rolling stock were in areas reached by Union armies, which systematically destroyed what it could. The South had 9400 miles of track and 6500 miles was in areas reached by the Union armies. About 4400 miles were in areas where Sherman and other Union generals adopted a policy of systematic destruction of the rail system. Even in untouched areas, the lack of maintenance and repair, the absence of new equipment, the heavy over-use, and the deliberate movement of equipment by the Confederates from remote areas to the war zone guaranteed the system would be virtually ruined at war's end.<ref> Paul F. Paskoff, "Measures of War: A Quantitative Examination of the Civil War's Destructiveness in the Confederacy,"  ''Civil War History'' 54.1 (2008) 35-62</ref>

== Legacy ==

== Legacy ==