Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/290

274 war was far beyond the war debt—the cost being estimated by some writers at $8,000,000,000.

Such was the condition of the South at the time (1865); exhausted, prostrated, disarmed, and in the presence of the victorious North, which then had an army, perhaps the best the world ever saw, of over 1,000,000 soldiers under arms. "Thus ended the war between the States," says Mr. Stephens. "It was waged by the Federals with the sole object, as they declared, of 'maintaining the Union under the Constitution,' while by the South it was waged with the great object of maintaining the inestimable sovereign right of local self-government on the part of the Southern States." The war had lasted four years, and the battles fought were among the greatest of modern times, great patriotism and generalship being displayed on both sides. The successes and defeats during most of the time were nearly equally divided, until finally the South fell from exhaustion before overwhelming numbers and resources. Over 2,000,000 soldiers had been brought against her, over and above her total forces, with a navy numbering 700 vessels of war, manned by 105,000 sailors, not including chartered vessels numbering near 3,000. This great fleet was used in occupying and holding the numerous rivers in Confederate territory, in blockading the coast from Maryland to the Rio Grande, and in transporting armies and supplies around territory which could not be crossed or occupied directly.

To understand thoroughly the events which followed the close of the war, it is necessary to allude briefly to the political conditions of the North and South previous to the war, and the theories which each side acknowledged and adhered to to its close. For the first time in its history the great republic, which in its progress had grown in power, prosperity, resources and wealth so