My take is that John Wilkes Booth managed to screw up the reconstruction exponentially. Lincoln would've managed a much less painful reconstruction. America has evolved through a lot of growing pains. The North was not particularly all in for the War as many in the South were not. Most fought for their home states where their loyalties lay.

The north had much more industrialization and was better financed than the South. The Southern plantation owners were an arrogant lot and managed to start a war they had no chance of winning. Most Northern Generals didn't believe the negro was the equal of the white which was ignorant. The entire war was fought from one stupid encounter to another. Tactics of the day were abysmal and many lost their lives to stupid decisions. That's war and we had many more replays after that. The South lost to attrition. Sherman was a bigot and an arrogant ass that was one half step away from the nut house. Before the war he was friends with Braxton Bragg and was the president of LSU. The only reason he entered the war is because he was incensed that the South had attacked Fort Sumpter. It took him till 1862 to find his feet and he almost got institutionalized for insanity before he managed to get hold of himself.

America lost much on account of the war that never should've been fought over a sin that never should've been committed. Our Constitution never sanctioned slavery. It was ratified by ignoring the elephant in the room that all knew would have to be eventually dealt with. Blacks did indeed suffer much during reconstruction as did the South as a hole. It took America until 1940 to admit that blacks were anywhere near the equal of whites and grudgingly so at that. The fate of black Americans has been corrupted by democrats and continues to be corrupted by them. Democrats founded the KKK and fathered just about every ill we suffer today.

We're loosing our culture. Our values are compromised. Our institutions are corrupted. Our government is corrupted and all by liberal leftists. Put the past behind and recognize that all those gallant, compromised generals that fought against one another in that great conflict were once classmates at West Point; another institution that has been corrupted by liberal think. They chose sides because of where their loyalties lay. Lee was from Virginia and fought for his home state. Although not perfect Lincoln was a great man and should be revered for his accomplishments against great odds. We should cherish all those monuments to the war from both sides. It's our heritage and without honoring our past we cannot expect to have a future devoid of mistakes made in that past.

Sure the North won but at what cost to the nation? It never should've been allowed to come to that. Lincoln tried everything he could think of to avoid the conflict but it was something that had to be to satisfy the ignorance and arrogance of those that couldn't let go of their prejudice. We're going through much of the same [bleep] today with a little different flavor to it. My view of it all is that stupidity is where you find it and knows no color or creed nor has any particular region to abide in. We're all just people and prone to sin.