What Happened to Confederates after the Civil War - Armchair Historian Reaction

[@VloggingThroughHistory]

Become a patron or member and see tomorrow's video TODAY! www.patreon.com/vth

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

You're awesome 🎉🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤❤

[@Theegreygaming]

I actually did a small video about Arlington. my channel primarily talks about the Fallout videogame franchise and one of the Fallout games depicts a fictionalized version of Arlington National Cemetary. so I did a video showing the history of Arlington national Cemetary and comparing what exists in real life, to what was created in game. it's pretty basic but if you're interested, I'd love to hear a critique from VTH. It's called "Fact Versus Fallout | Arlington National Cemetery"

[@ericR1999]

Much, much better than your BS about Stalingrad being the turning point instead of the Battle of Moscow. Yep, we “botched” it. I thought you did an excellent job with the time selecting the knowledge to another’s presentation.

[@TonyWright8121]

You should do a reactionary video on uncle Tom ll

[@Nostripe361]

I still think Buchanan was the worst president.

[@llandrin9205]

At the surrender, Grant did not accept Lee's sword. Also, the horses were not taken because Grant said they would be needed for the soldiers to be able to plow their fields and aid in taking care of themselves and their families. Grant was a very good man. Yes, he had his personal problems, but he was a very thoughtful, compassionate man. I wish that side of him was more apparent in how he is taught in history classes.

[@anderskorsback4104]

Indeed, one thing that often gets overlooked in how ruinous historical wars are is the depletion of the stock of horses and other work animals. Most such animals take something like 5 years to grow to adulthood, which is longer than most wars last, so every horse assigned to the war effort is one less horse for the civilian economy. Especially if you are under blockade and can't easily import horses. Add to that how work animals would have been particularly important for the Southern agrarian economy, not only for production but transportation too, which you can't do without when your economy is based on exporting cash crops and is even a net importer of food despite being agrarian.

[@Jackholiday1025]

I read that Lee didn’t allow an unkind word about grant in his presence after that.

[@hokie7373]

Grant allowed it, but it was Lee that asked for that concession on the horses and mules. He noted that the men supplied their own mounts, not the confederate government

[@benn454]

@@anderskorsback4104 Grant talks in his Memoirs about seeing corpses of horses and remains of broken wagons laying on the side of the road for MILES while he was traveling to Chattanooga to face Bragg.

[@arlonfoster9997]

Both Lee and Grant were passionate and compassionate men 😊

[@asweettooth1288]

The South's hope died with Lincoln.

[@Dornana]

Ironic

[@Jones25ful]

@@missaelcastillo5154 Andrew Johnson

[@silverstudios6916]

@@Jones25fulexactly

[@edwarddorey4480]

You included a comma in this sentence for no reason.

[@mosquerajoseph7305]

@@edwarddorey4480yes, he did

[@mikeberry2332]

Hi Chris, was glad to see Brazil come up. My great-great-grandparents were among the many Southerners encouraged to move to Brazil after the war by former Confederate General A. T. Hawthorne. As Southern Baptist missionaries, however, they were more concerned with converting Catholics and African-Brazilians than continuing Confederate ways. In fact my great-great-grandfather left behind a glowing diary entry about the end of slavery in 1888 and the public street celebrations that ensued.

[@arthurlibritannia1865]

Brasil mencionado

[@Dino-lemon265]

COME TO BRAZIL

[@lolwuttup420]

@@Dino-lemon265lmao, perfect use of this meme!

[@mikeberry2332]

@@Dino-lemon265 i was there in March, first time since i was 8. I am now 62!

[@GiordanDiodato]

it's too bad they still celebrate the Confederacy

[@Dread_Pirate62]

I have a relative who died of starvation at Andersonville after being captured at Chickamauga. He’s buried in the cemetery there, one of the lucky ones with a marked grave instead of being shown as Unknown.

[@firingallcylinders2949]

Brutal way to go

[@Peter-jo6yu]

And to think the Confederate traitors were basically let off with a tap on the wrist. Literally one of the biggest mistakes made in the American past.

[@Peter-jo6yu]

And to think the Confederates were essentially let off with a tap on the wrist. Unbelievable

[@kevinkerr9405]

More confederates died in Union prisons than Union prisoners in Confederate prisons.

[@benn454]

@@Peter-jo6yu Criminal. Johnson was a traitor.

[@dredoggie6930]

Hey Chris. I’ve been tuned in with the channel for about a month and have fell in love with how diverse and informational your content is across all your channels. I’m not one to watch another person react to stuff, however you give such great insight on just about everything involving U.S history, as well as European history. God bless you and the family!

[@netizensarrest4241]

Petition for Chris to finish the Reconstruction series. I learned so much and I’ll keep asking.

[@IrishTechnicalThinker]

As a proud Irish man, I've been interested in our nations role in American history and culture. Learning about the 69th New York was very emotional for me but incredibly important to paint a picture of the sacrifice made over the 1860's. I really appreciate learning more about the aftermath of the horrendous war.

[@rhett1029]

Stories of Irish Immigrants have always fascinated me as well. My ancestor Samuel Thompson immigrated from Ulster and was badly wounded fighting for the Patriot Cause in the American Revolution. He forged his way West and ended up as a Captain in the East Tennessee Militia in the War of 1812

[@Grenadier311]

It's as if Ireland's civil wars were transplanted to America. A majority of Confederate soldiers had Scots/Ulster/Protestant Irish ancestry, while the Union filled the ranks with hordes of Catholic Irish conscripts. A Confederate general quipped to his Yankee counterpart after the war that "the only reason you won is that you had more Irish".

[@freneticness6927]

​​@@Grenadier311I would assume the south may have had a few tory irish catholics who went away from cromwells attacks in ireland aswell with the royalists. A southern johnson guy who married alot of indians was from ireland. Pretty ironic that puritan boston would see alot of catholic irish people move there. The catholic irish started the draft riots against blacks though so they were in almost no way commited to the conflict.

[@jaredR207]

Go to Gettysburg and check out the Irish monuments, people place Irish flags there.

[@charlayned]

The Freedmen's Bureau is also a source for genealogy for the former slaves's descendants now. Thankfully some of their records survived. I've helped a couple of people find relatives information there. My family had such a quandary about the war, especially the Tennessee family members. I had 4 2nd-Great Great Grandfathers in the Civil War. 2 Union: GW Warfield in the 30th Illinois Infantry and J.M. Clayton of the 6th TN Cavalry Regiment. The two Confederates were AJ Brown in the 26th TN Infantry and CC Smith of the 41st Georgia Infantry. Fun fact: GW Warfield was at Vicksburg and so was CC Smith. They ended up with CC in the POW group. So, mom's side captured dad's side. After the war, GW went to Iowa, AJ, CC, and JM were all in Texas. And, JM's daughter married AJ's son, which is how our family got over the war. CC 's granddaughter (my grandmother) ended up marrying JM and AJ's grandson (my grandfather). GW was my mom's great-great grandfather So our family basically patched up the fight in their own way.

[@JEndless2025]

I understand wanting to reconcile after the war, but it's crazy that anyone could commit treason and then serve in government afterwards.

[@ikematthews6866]

Ya maybe it made sense at the time but I don’t like how Lee and others were basically allowed to go just go home scot free.

[@PageIsYourGod]

Don't look at me. I voted for Thadeus Stevens

[@FordHoard]

You think the founding fathers didn't commit treason? The United States was literally founded by traitors.

[@FordHoard]

@@ikematthews6866 You're treating a typical southern soldier as if he was on the same level as Adolf Hitler. Back then, both sides had respect for each other after the war. Persecution would have been just continuing the conflict in another way. Grant was very graceful to let his opponent and his men return home with their guns and horses. That's something we'll never see again today.

[@clonetrooper730]

@@FordHoard He's not talking about the soldiers he's talking about the leaders nor is he comparing their actions to Hitler. There's a big difference between persecuting leadership and persecuting soldiers/followers. Some members of Confederate leadership not getting the rope but instead a slap on the wrist can already be considered a miracle by most measures. Allowing them immediate access to political power was an interesting choice and can be argued as overly lenient. Nothing wrong with seeking reconciliation and restoring things to how they were, but there are always consequences to your actions.

[@TerminalSports45]

13:37 fun fact, those northerners who went south to take advantage of the situation often carried fancy bags made of capet, which is where the term "carpetbagger" comes from. Now its original meaning did get lost over time but that's where it came from. Edit: There's also a mini series by Wartime Stories on Champ Ferguson you might want to try out.

[@endubito]

I have never known "carpetbagger" to mean anything other than "damn Yankee".

[@gerryw173ify]

@@endubito These days I think it mainly refers to politicians taking office in places they don't have much ties to.

[@jamesfetherston1190]

The bags were not fancy. Carpet bags were a cheap means of making luggage from old worn out rugs.

[@godwarrior3403]

When people say we botched reconstruction, I guess I misunderstood. I thought they meant Lincoln would have been lenient and avoided resentment, but his successor was harsh and pushed them to anger. But I've watched the original vid and now your reaction and all I've gotten both times is that we should have absolutely annihilated any spirit left in the south. There was too much leniency. If that's what is meant by failing at reconstruction then I misunderstood, which isn't a big deal. It hardly seems debatable to me though. The south kept trying to fan their still hot coals back into flames, so the union kept splashing water on it, and the south just kept acting like bratty children. Had we been even more soft on them, obviously we see what would have happened. They frickin tried to restart slavery with work contracts. That's so deviant it's actually insane.

[@richardmardis2492]

My great grandfather (18 South Carolina) lost his younger teenage brother at Second Manassas, and lost his leg at the end of the war. I’m sure he had a very tough life after the war. Poor boy before the war- poor and broken man after. His wooden leg was still up in the attic when my father was a young boy. He says he could hear it walking around late at night.

[@1987ptru]

I requested this a few days ago didn’t think Chris would react to it so fact great work Chris

[@angelskaixo5188]

My Great Great grandpa was enlisted in the fall of 1861. He was in the 11th Ky infantry until after Shiloh. (He was under Buell, so he only fought the 2nd day) after that he asked for discharge to take a commission in the 35th Ky mounted infantry. It's with them he went to Saltville.

[@xjp1998]

First I am a Lee of Virginia I am a direct descendant of Edmond J Lee, Who was Robert E Lee’s Uncle. I just want to add a few things. The taxes on the property his wife tried several times to pay the taxes on what really was her land she had inherited the land from her father but do to women not having the right to own property it went to Robert officially. Do to her being a woman was the loophole the government tried to use to not accept the payments. Roberts son got a lot of money for the land I think in today’s money it would be around 25 million. Also Robert did everything to put the country back together even going as far as stating put the flag away and in museums but not to fly it as the confederacy was dead and we are all part of the United States. He also said no statues or monuments should be done for the confederacy. Robert would not get his citizenship back till President Ford signed the order. The US government feared if Lee had gotten his citizenship back while alive he would become President.

[@samrevlej9331]

22:33 ... Ah, yes, people who lead a rebellion against the US government eventually being put back into leading positions into that government. Such a foreign and exotic notion. Really can't imagine that ever happening nowadays.

[@eurech]

Oh the irony.

[@mikejohnson9606]

The seceded states had the right to secede when none of the persons on the ballet became president.

[@stc3145]

Brazil only abolished slavery in 1888, last country in the Western hemisphere to do so. And they imported more slaves from Africa than any country on earth. Kinda crazy

[@Peter-jo6yu]

This is irrelevant. "Others did evil too, so I'm justified!"

[@stc3145]

@@Peter-jo6yu Was never an attempt to justify anything. You are making irrelevant assumptions. "Others have done this so this must be as well"

[@Geographyandhistory2024]

Mauritania was the last country to abolish slavery in the western hemisphere,not Brazil

[@coe3408]

Both true. But the abolition of slavery in Brazil was a long process. In the mid 19th century slaves were already a minority of the black population because manumition was very common. Also unlike in the USA, according to the 1824 constitution freed slaves born in Brazil were full citizens. We also had very influential mulattos in the imperial government, including ministers, senators, ambassadors etc.

[@Sparrows1121]

Its kinda mad that people will defend a war that was about people being too lazy to pick their own cotton

[@stephenparker6362]

Hi, Chris, this is what makes history so interesting, the fact that events today are still impacted by actions taken two hundred years or even five hundred years ago. Armchair Historian is very good. I enjoyed this and learned a lot. Arnchair Historian has a video on the evolution of German borders which I thought was very good.

[@maynardburger]

It is pretty good. Not comprehensive, but hits on some good points and does a lot better than a channel led by a Ben Shapiro-lookalike than I first thought it would. I hate admitting falling for the stereotype initially, but the history community does not have a great reputation as a whole on the social side of things. Glad to see so many popular KZbin history channels go against it.

[@svenrio8521]

You're series on Reconstruction was great, would love to see it continued.

[@CosmosJack]

Lansford Hastings -- who wrote the "Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California," sent the Donner Party down his "Hastings' Cutoff" to their doom, and ultimately had an enormous influence on the USA's borders in the West -- was one of the Confederates who moved to Brazil after the war. He wrote the "Emigrants' Guide to Brazil" in 1867 and died in the Virgin Islands in 1870 while leading settlers to his colony.

[@MasterWooten]

K... at about 2:30 Yeah, I think I can say that the nation botched Reconstruction in about as similar a fashion as the victorious Allies out of WWI did Versailles and its aftermath period of about 10-15 years. I'll defer to your Civil War expertise to tell me how on or off I am with that comparison.

[@oliversherman2414]

We couldn't see the pictures you were showing us because of the black screen

[@Hcgsports]

16:51 As soon as you said you don’t want a debate in the comment section I knew he was talking about Forrest

[@lolwuttup420]

Yeah he was almost certainly going to say Nathan Bedford Forrest. I question the sincerity of Forrest’s change but who knows.

[@trinalgalaxy5943]

The story of Arlington Cemetary I have heard is that troops first dug graves in the rose garden before the land was seized to become a cemetery.

[@VloggingThroughHistory]

It was near the rose garden but not it in.

[@piasecznik]

One interesting story about the overly lenient reconstruction: In the 1940s, Georgia had a very hardline secessionist governor, Herman Talmadge. The sort of guy who would threaten rivers of blood flowing over integration, made sure people lynching blacks got off scot free, all that stuff. He gave an oral history interview in 1990 where he was asked about his feelings on the civil rights era in retrospect and how he thought it could have been handled better. Two quotes from that interview: On integration: "Well, really, we should have started long before. We should have just started with the Fourteenth Amendment. It could have been done with ease then. We'd just lost the war, and they'd crammed it down our throat at the point of a bayonet. That'd been the time to do it." Asked about whether it would have been a good idea to wait another 20-30 years for the South to come around on integration on its own without federal intervention: "Well, it would have prevented lots of turmoil and everything else that we did have. 'Course, the route that we should have gone, when they passed the Fourteenth Amendment, that really was the basis of all these so-called rights and still is. At that time, we ought not to have ever had segregated schools, segregation in the South. Once you adopt a pattern and a mold of conduct with all of the laws involved, including your Constitution, and it's been in being for over a 100 years, people don't change their habits." So even some hardline Southerners agreed that a more harsh reconstruction could have prevented black oppression in the South for another century.

[@Lakitu886]

been waiting for this one!

[@CodyChepa88]

Watched this the other day so glad you are reacting to it .

[@jeffreylc]

I’m guessing Chris was going to say Nathan Bedford Forrest around the 17:00 mark and I would have agreed with him.

[@mako88sb]

Yes, he confirmed that with an earlier post.

[@MyJeffreyJones]

Another exceptional breakdown with great anecdotal and factual insights. As a life-long student of history, I always learn new, and interesting, tidbits from your vast knowledge base and expertise. I also share your utter disgust with the abhorrent failure of reconstruction after the Civil War… truly one of the worst missed opportunities to fully realize Lincoln’s vision of a more perfect union.

[@alexandrejosedacostaneto381]

I have family in Americana. It is a nice city, but the majority of the population is of Italian ancestry, with people of Confederate ancestry only making up a minority of the population. Many confederates did eventually return to the US in the decades following the founding of the town, they did form a influential and wealthy community here in Brazil, which keeps their southern traditions to this day.

[@fernsong8558]

26:10 If anybody would like to learn more about these labor contracts I recommend Knowing Better’s video about Neoslavery. Truly awful what happened.

[@llandrin9205]

Lee's wife, Mary Custis, was the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington and step-great-granddaughter of George Washington. When they seized Arlington House, it was looted and Lee remarked that a lot of the things taken had been the possessions of George Washington.

[@MrGrogan02]

Watched this a weekish ago and have been waiting for this.

[@detramwings6969]

Glad to see you react to Armchair Historian,they have one of the best production quality of history KZbin channels

[@ozwolf01]

Simon Whistler did a video on Wirz's actions and the consequences in his Into the Shadows channel. I would love to see your tale on it.

[@CountChappy]

Man, I really appreciate and love what you do. You manage to take great content and add all this extra knowledge and information propelling the content into whole new tier of it's own. Thank you VTH!

[@thedoronilafamily2434]

Nice video as always, also it's August 9th, the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki

[@MasterWooten]

Judah P Benjamin 14:20 thereabouts. Ya know it's always interesting to see the curious relationship between blacks and Jews playout in the midst of American racial politics. You have the oppressed of the old world (Jews) and the oppressed of the new world (blacks), their relationship only beginning to come together in somewhat of a positive like after the horrors of the holocaust and WWII. You see after those events it is unlikely that you'd had seen a Judah P. Benjamin playing a Eugene "Bull" Connor, or George C. Wallace type figure in the 1950s and 1960s just on account of having white skin seeing how that alone didn't save them from Auschwitz or Buchenwald. Morality often requires a certain level of experience to be perfected.

[@GoodHunter9]

I've always been more into the Great War and the Golden Age of Piracy, but you've honestly made me want to read more about the Civil War. Thanks for that!

[@BlueSideUp77]

This inspires a watch of the epic "North and South" with Patrick Swayze! (The music track is very similar)

[@WickedCool23]

Hello Chris, looking in hindsight do you think we should’ve been harder on the former Confederates or more magnanimous?

[@marycahill546]

Canada here. I don't agree that the Northern victors should have come down hard on the South. Minds cannot be changed by coercion, only persuasion, and that takes time.

[@kweassa6204]

Should have moved on to punishment and dismantling of old powerstructures and entrenched elites, before granting amnesty and reconstruction.

[@charles_strange1737]

I’m from Andrew Johnson’s hometown lol I’ve been in his house they still have preserved like 20 times its pretty cool

[@CaptLoomis]

Love how the guy at 13:55 when he is talking about collution looks like one of the Simpsons!

[@MCAWESOME19]

Is the screen just going black whenever Chris stops the video?

[@Presidentchip-]

Yeah it is but I made a comment but it got deleted

[@ngc5195]

I’m wondering why he’s doing that

[@jamesblackwell7752]

Jefferson was held at Ft. Monroe VA. where I lived as a teen, and now I live right down the road from where he was caught in Washington GA. We've even had treasure hunters want to search my mom and dads land for the lost Confederate gold.

[@richeybaumann1755]

17:00 if it's who I'm pretty sure it is, then I would agree that, in the end, he did do the right thing. He certainly tried to cling to the past, but he did eventually repudiate his ties to the worst of them and made a concerted effort to be better.

[@mazelam43]

Hi Chris. Just another suggestion on a series you could make a reaction to, BBC's Horrible Histories I think is a prettty entertaining show which covers a lot of ground in terms of history that I think you could add some really nice details to.

[@luketonkinson5440]

He’s tried in the past but it automatically gets copyright claimed.

[@mazelam43]

@@luketonkinson5440 I see. Thanks for telling me

[@rafaelalandrade]

Most of the section about Brazil is factually incorrect and, more worrisomely, gives the wrong idea about Dom Pedro II. The Emperor never issued any invitation to confederates to settle in Brazil, the country was simply open to immigration, specially european. My own family came from Italy in the second wave during the 1880s (though they settled much farther west than the first wave). The confederates took advantage of this and came into the country after the end of the Civil War. They did not found the town of Americana, it was simply a name that came about for the village after the influx of americans into the area, which had already been settled for more than fifty years when they arrived. In fact, pretty soon after that, a wave of italian immigrants came in, and settled in the same area. The area is still mostly italian, with descendants of the confederates being a minority since that wave of italian migrants. With regards to the Emperor, he was a staunch abolitionist and had been working hard to get the institution of slavery over and done with. You must understand that Brazil had a constitutional monarchy, not an absolute one. The power mostly resided with the planter class and the Emperor was limited to what we called the "Moderator" power. He could veto any laws, but he could not propose any himself, as that power rested with congress. For decades he maneuvered society, exercising what today would be called Soft Power based on his enormous popularity. The immigration policies which allowed europeans (and the americans in this particular case) to come and settle the farmland were designed specifically to show the power of free labor and how outdated and inefficient slavery was. When he did finally get enough support to abolish slavery, he did so (through his daughter and heir Princess Isabel) and within a year suffered a military coup backed by the planter elite who had lost their slaves. Instead of rallying the population (which supported the Emperor to the tune of about 90% in polls), which would have caused a bloody civil war of our own, he decided to let go and left for Europe to live out the rest of his days. In my opinion, he remains the greatest brazilian who ever lived.

[@thehardwallbreaker3134]

I asked you a question on a stream about your favorite alternate history scenario other than "What if Woodrow Wilson was never President?" and you said if Lincoln's running mate in 1864 had been Hannibal Hamlin or some other not Andrew Johnson option. Even if you do count that scenario, would you still say that the one about Lincoln's running mate is still your favorite over the one about Woodrow Wilson?

[@MarthaDwyer]

I live in Washington, NC. My family were merchants that relocated from Connecticut to NC in the 1770s, just before the Revolution. Washington was captured during the mid point by the Union because it was a port just upriver from the Pamlico Sound. I dont know much about what my family during the Civil War but there is a family story that my great great great grandmother, from a very prominent local family that had a lot of land holdings, refused to sign the Oath of Allegiance and never did. She was a Blount and if you know Tennessee history, one of her relatives, William Blount, had extensive land holdings in Tennessee and was instramental in early Tennessee history.

[@jackmedlock5888]

19:24 just pointing out that whatever photo you tried to show didn’t pop up during the video.

[@ayegaming14]

You should react to the one he made about how Yugoslavia liberated itself during ww2. I find it the most interesting out of all of his videos

[@jamesearly8518]

I believe I heard Griffin say that James Longstreet was the only major Confederate officer to become a Republican after the war. But John Singleton Mosby also did. Maybe Griffin doesn't consider Mosby a major Confederate officer.

[@VloggingThroughHistory]

Mosby was a Colonel so I’m guessing that’s why but yes he was a Republican

[@agentspaniel4428]

@VloggingThroughHistory also P.G.T. Beauregard later became a prominent civil rights activist

[@wnchstrman]

​@@agentspaniel4428Which I find very interesting to learn considering he literally started the civil war at Sumter.

[@agentspaniel4428]

A lot of people also moved out west to the frontier starting the peak of the old west

[@joegamer08productions]

A historian reacting to a historian, The greatest crossover ever-

[@rhett1029]

Interesting to note that the 43rd SecDef for the US Luke Wright was a 2LT in the Confederate Army and had seen action during the war and his successor Jacob Dickinson the 44th SecDef served as a Private in the CSA

[@jdotoz]

That office didn't exist at the time; he was Secretary of War.

[@Jesusfreak-m3x]

As my most available expert, would Lincoln's political capital have been enough to make it better or would he have simply tarnished his legacy trying to sort through the morass that came after? Did Booth do Lincoln a favor?

[@arjunsandhar578]

Great vid

[@ShadowShark619]

Wartime Stories made a two-part series about Champ Fergurson in case anyone is interested to know more about him. Just look up 'The Confederate Who Murdered a Hundred Men'

[@johnmiwa6256]

17;00. Thinking about Forrest?

[@VloggingThroughHistory]

Yep.

[@cameronmooring9659]

Andrew Johnson was from NC not TN, there is a statue of him in front of the Raleigh NC courthouse.

[@VloggingThroughHistory]

He was born in NC. He lived his entire adult and professional life in Tennessee, where he served as a Senator and Governor. He is “from” North Carolina the same way George W Bush is “from” Connecticut.

[@cameronmooring9659]

@@VloggingThroughHistory even though he’s an awful president I have to show love to my home state POTUS’s

[@grandtheftauto5588]

There is no reason to believe race relations would be any different no matter how reconstruction went. There would still be a giant achievement gap between blacks and whites (test scores, wealth, IQ scores), which is at the heart of our strained race relations.

[@wewuzaryans]

While the criminal underfunding of the US education system (seriously look it up) is at the cause for two of those it not just colored people suffering under the underfunding of the education system

[@omalleycaboose5937]

while Grants terms with surrender were generous, I dont think it embellishes his name as unconditional surrender. as he didn't need those terms like that to get the surrender, its just what was best for the nation

[@jdotoz]

You can grant concessions after receiving an unconditional surrender. "Unconditional surrender" just means that you won't negotiate those concessions prior to the surrender.

[@johnbarruzza7976]

“It only came back under you-know-who” 😂😂👏🏻

[@JWendt56]

How is the screen black? What’s the long story? TL:DR?

[@apolloniapythia9141]

One of my grandfathers - a lifelong Nazi - had been captured by US troops in France and had been as POW in the south. PLaying piano in an officers club he liked the - racist - life there so much that he had an internal fight to go back to wife and two little girls in Vienna after the war.

[@Jacob-rl4ny]

Petition for vlogging through history to talk about the philippine American war day 8

[@vluverr]

minor point but at 4:42 isn’t unconditional surrender just surrendering without being guaranteed mercy from the other side. just because they were favorable to them doesn’t mean the confederates didn’t surrender without guarantees of conditions favorable to them no?

[@TwentyOneXXI]

Perfect vid to put on in the background while I play Diablo

[@TwentyOneXXI]

Was wondering what you were going to add that would lead you to arguments - maybe a name to lookup?

[@QuintRepler]

I would love to see you redux your Reconstruction series and complete it

[@mjbull5156]

It seems that the population of a republic have little patience for long term nation building efforts, for good or for ill.

[@MGWProfessor]

Watched this yesterday and I said to myself, "I wonder if Chris will see this and....."

[@Morristown337]

Coming down hard on the south would have bread more lasting resentment and could have even ignited a Civil War 2 just like the Germans did after harsh conditions after WW1. I think things happened the way they needed to in order to get us where we are today. I think most alternate histories would have ended worse then ours because I believe a larger more intelligent design is at work in the world either in our creation or in our programming (or design). Perhaps that invisible hand needs to interfere with our self destruction at times.

[@tuehojbjerg969]

They threw 40% of the population of the couth under the buss,

[@dkoda840]

I used to think this was true but look at Germany today. What happened in Germany was unique and had any group try and revive the confederacy after the civil war it would have made the union do what the Allies did and straight up break up Germany and effectively occupy it and forcefully change it. Not to mention the north would immediately respond to southerns re arming and quashed a rebellion BEFORE it could take route again.

[@firingallcylinders2949]

​@@dkoda840perhaps, but Johnson was a Southern Sympathizer....not so sure he would've been swift to act on the South trying to start up again (assuming it was right after during his administration)

[@dkoda840]

@@firingallcylinders2949 I agree

[@Superhero18]

@@dkoda840 When it comes to Germany, keep in mind that not only did they have to ban certain political parties, but the anti-corruption laws in the European Union also took affect. That's what you're going to have to do at a minimum, for that kind of program. And maintaining that program is not easy. If one reads even curiously at European newsletters(like the Guardian) sectarian conflict is a norm, not a rare occurrence. What 1/6/2020 was in America, is something that happens in Europe, every day. Those who are rightly sympathetic towards civil rights, thinks that by being harsh, it will more forcefully hand down righteousness. Instead, it will keep the embers of hatred alive, and the resistance though small, will persist. And that persistence itself, will keep animosity remaining. In short, a stronger military hand would not have put more of an end to the KKK then it did. it would have not improved general relations with the South. At best, it would assure us a norm of European-style violence in our politics. So I do disagree with our host, more violence would not have saved or improved the condition of African-American lives. Martin Luther King would later on in the century, go to show what the right path was for his people and for the US as a whole. The greatest failure of reconstruction, was the failure to reconstruct the Southern economy. It is these economic dire straits, which led to further social deterioration which has had its modern effects. When it comes to the reforms proposed, economic reconstruction was heavily opposed and the South would remain in poverty for most of the next century and into today. The North meanwhile would continue to expand its industry(and a second industrial base would be found in the Pacific via California) and that my friends is where we are today in the modern map. An industrialized North, a center-left Pacific and Pacific Northwest. The Midwest States are kinda, in the middle of all this and then there's the South. What we need to do, is find a way to create an industrial center inside of the South. We have far too much concentrated industry on the coastal states and almost nothing in the 'heartland' of the US. Frankly, it's a wasted opportunity because the South is still a rich agricultural hotbed for the US. Imagine an industrial center along with that agriculture. We have Texas, how many more Texas's can we create?

[@octavianpopescu4776]

Ok, as a European looking at this and seeing the current-day political climate in the US, there's a thing I don't get: how does one reconcile American patriotism with waving the Confederate flag? How can anyone claim to be loyal while having participated in treason or praising traitors? Because it seems to me, it takes a lot of twisted mental gymnastics to do that. Imagine if after WW2, there were people waving the Nazi or Japanese flags and people wouldn't bat an eye. Or if during the Cold War, some people waved the Soviet flag, while at the same time saying they love the US.

[@VloggingThroughHistory]

Definitely a fair question.

[@saimaberrii]

It's very inconvenient for an entire half of our political system to be associated with fascist ideology so it's kind of procrastinated and not dealt with. Europe has far right parties but as of yet they can't take majority without violence. They can get close in the US but they still get some resistance from republicans and our institutions are strong enough to keep them from ever completely taking power. The US tolerates a larger fringe of fascism than the rest of the western world does.

[@Grenadier311]

It's interesting how Southern slaves continued to support the war effort and didn't rebel during the war when the fighting age white men were away on the battlefield. My GGG grandfather was close to the black manservant who nursed him back to health after he got sick following the Battle of Manassas. Slave owners who brutalized and mistreated their slaves were ostracized by "polite" society in the South; particularly is the eastern states. I'm not defending slavery, but rather am providing context. Less than 2% of Southerners owned slaves. The average Confederate soldier didn't fight for rich men to keep their slaves. They fought for an independence where they weren't dominated by the numerically and industrially superior and alien North.

[@kaijuroar8415]

No one is saying all southerners should've been punished, but the fact that the Armchair Historian made it clear that higher up confederates got away scot free and some were usually trying to keep the order the way it was before the war. Also, being "Polite" to your slaves doesn't make you anymore good than one who brutalizes them, both owned people, humans.

[@jonnie106]

You are skipping over the white supremacy, the fuel which kept the peculiar institution running since its inception. The average confederate soldier knew he was superior to any of the thousands of slaves living in his state. When word floated down from the rumor mill of Lincoln and his republican's intent to free the slaves, every southerner rich or poor wondered but didn't know for sure what would happen if the slaves were freed. If the Nat Turner rebellion and the Haitian slave revolt were any example, you KNOW that every fighting age, white male in a southern slave state was first very anti-Lincoln and second more than willing to fight for a government that would never free its inferior slaves, to live with some ungodly notion of equality among his superior sons, daughters, sisters and brothers. So prevalent was this idea that, at wars' end with no slavery to be the station of the inferior black, they took up the mantle of creating the segregated society (enforced by 'lynch mob justice'), in which emancipated blacks would still and forever know their place. The only thing interesting about southern slaves not rebelling while the civil war was in effect, is since the abolishment of the African slave trade in 1808, virtually all the 'fighting age' slaves in the south were born here. Born to slave parents who'd been broken of their self-esteem, value and ambition and who passed this damaged mental state of mind onto their own children, who then manifested into people like the black manservant that cared for your third grandfather.

[@comrademusconivich1081]

It was as if the federal government was intent on creating newly equal opportunities for the freed slaves but the president himself, Andrew Johnson, seemed to have other ideas.

[@glennwhitehead6484]

I'd be interested to know your views on the country of Liberia being set up by Monroe, as a place to return freed blacks in the years before the civil war. The Capital Monrovia still bearing his name today!

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

Love your content man 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@polynesianbloodline]

29:20 who is “you know who” ? Thank u for any help!

[@MartinAngdell]

Woodrow Wilson

[@angeliajohnson5340]

To defend the video's author about SC starting the war, one could argue that "Bleeding Kansas" could be argued of being the prelude of the Civil War.

[@DrVictorVasconcelos]

It's _per se_ misleading to correct a dollar figure using inflation alone. The median income in 1860 was $300. That's 67 years to make $20k. Compare that to $370k today with a median income of 47k. That's only 7.8 years. Then there's unemployment, slavery and incomes per family.

[@germyproductions3454]

Hello Chris, havn't been sending you a comment in a while, but hope you're doing alright. I am aware that this has nothing to do with the topic of the video directly but I am wondering as a fellow tutor and future history teacher, how much didacticism is involved in studying History in the US, especially since if I am not mistaken, you visit schools, talk in front of classes and so on. I wonder if you have the same kind of "how to teach and talk about histor"-courses over in the US as we do here in Germany and if so where the general focus is put on. Also more on topic: I always love your reactions to the Armchair Historian, almost as much as your Mr. Beat reactions, you always seem to have such a great chemistry when reacting to their videos and to their characters in general.

[@mamiller1980]

Was the argument you were worried about regarding Nathan Bedford Forrest?

[@freddiequell2067]

That is fascinating that ex-confederates could hold government positions after the war...you wouldn't think that would be the case on the surface...I would like to learn more about that.

[@mikeoxlong3676]

I'm blown away by Lincoln and Grant's honor. They were so gracious and commited to peace.

[@mikejohnson9606]

Why, because Lincoln wanted the war first. He could had just let Ft. Sumter go back to South Carolina.

[@Byzant7]

@@mikejohnson9606it wasn’t their fort. Also the south fired the first shot

[@mikejohnson9606]

@Byzant7 the first shots can be several different times. It is that is when history wanted it and Lincoln chose to call it that way. Buchanan could have chose the first shots before if he had chose to do it that way.

[@Byzant7]

@@mikejohnson9606 “could” doesn’t mean it did. It was a federal fort, being resupplied, and General Beauregard along with governor Pickens gave the order to fire upon the fort. The south were the aggressors. Full stop

[@yannikamaya]

Just as @vloggingthroughhistory was saying Free State of Jones I was thinking it 😅

[@nathanjmartucci7849]

How close are you to Dayton, Ohio? I'm headed out there the day after tomorrow with my nephews and my Dad.

[@Presidentchip-]

How come the screen goes black sometimes? Whenever you pause the video or stop it the screen goes black not sure if this was on purpose or not.

[@brandonstandifer6005]

I'm only 2:53 min in, but how do you think things could've been done differently to make a better transition and have better race relations after the war?

[@danielbishop1863]

Personally, I think the best solution would have been to resettle the former slaves. Perhaps the Northern states could have accepted them as refugees, letting them benefit from their enlightened non-racist culture. (/s) Or the Liberia project could have been completed. Or give the freed slaves land (40 acres and a mule) in a frontier territory like Nebraska. Alternatively, if you want to take the vindictive approach, expel the South's *White* population to the West, and give their land to Black people. But "stay here and work for your resentful former masters" was just inevitably doomed to fail as soon as the North got tired of their military occupation.

[@zacharygrouwinkel1534]

Chamberlain is just an all around good dude.

[@Ron-qe4ul]

Been waiting for this one

[@wedgeantilles8575]

Did you "botch it"? I am not 100% sure I agree with you. Because of one simple fact: You never had a second civil war. There are many examples of civil wars that lead to other civil wars a few years later. Wars leading to other wars in general. WW1 directly led to WW2. So from the simple fact that you did NOT get a second war, I guess you must have done much more correct than you think. It is very easy to see peace as a given - but it is not. It is a big achievement and you do not get it by accident.

[@Adsper2000]

The South didn’t recover from the Civil War until the New Deal, 70-80 years later. They were done, any insurrection would have been crushed easily, especially considering all the slaves (like 40% of the South’s population) were now freemen and would be on the Union’s side.

[@GeronimoKC-dt9vm]

My 2x great grandfather Horace King was a Buffalo soldier 9th calvary stationed at Ft.Leavenworth and it was passed down to us "Burning Kansas" was the beginning of the Civil War against slavery ...black soldiers had to quarter themselves on Indian land at that time provided by an Indian princess named Quindaro which is where a majority of runaway slaves settled after crossing the Missouri River on the underground railroad...John Brown enlisted these black men as infantry in his raids on Missouri they later became what we know as the Buffalo soldiers...but it seems history and the Union at that time didn't want to kick start a Civil War over what was considered then slave revolts Lincolns reluctance on squashing the rebellion led to Missouri joining the confederacy and Kansas being a free state one if not the first but we were also told the first shots of the Civil War were taken in Perry-Lecompton KS a few miles from Lawrence KS...let me know if I have any of this wrong

[@ajrobbins368]

Already watched the great original video, but I enjoy hearing your insights!

[@that247life]

@16:55 [Atun-Shei has entered the chat.] @17:04 [Atun-Shei has left the chat.]

[@TimeRift609]

It never occurred to me that the U. S. in U. S. Grant is part of where the unconditional surrender nickname comes from.

[@jackmessick2869]

What was behind Longstreet's "My spleen!" comment? Was this a joke about "venting your spleen," or did he pass away due to a spleen ailment?

[@jackmessick2869]

Doh! Missed the voodoo angle 😂