ABSTRACT
Over 600,000 American men had died during the Civil War, a quarter of all (white) Southern men of military age had been killed or wounded, and, in 1865, the state of Mississippi had to spend 20 per cent of its revenue on the purchase of artificial limbs for Confederate veterans. War had ruined the Southern economy, and seen the national debt rise to $3 million. Approximately four million slaves had been freed, but many would die from disease and starvation in the months following freedom. In addition to all of these issues there remained the question of how and when the rebel states would be readmitted to the Union.
