Status Updates From April 1865: The Month That ...

“What if” on extended Confederate guerilla warfare: “[even in Northern cities,] potential targets would abound: banks, buildings, businesses… and possibly even newspapers and statehouses. All were vulnerable, threatening to turn these cities into nineteenth-century versions of Belfast and Beirut. Under such a scenario, month after grinding month, even year after year, who would feel under seige?”

Put me to sleep i fear ☠️

“In the vortex of this debate, once the battle lines were sharply drawn, moderate ground everywhere became hostage to the passions of the two sides. Reason itself had become suspect; mutual tolerance was seen as a treachery. Vitriol overcame accommodation. And the… issue would not just fade away.”