The Civil War ended on April
9, 1865. The war lasted almost four years after Fort Sumter fell. The North
lost 365,000 men. The South lost 260,000. Most of these men died in battle,
but some also died of sickness or in prison camps. The economy of the South was ruined.
Thousands of acres of good farmland had been destroyed. Whole plantations
were destroyed.The North was not affected as much
as the South. Little fighting had been done there. The Union soldiers found
things much the same as they had left them.Women had served as nurses or
workers in factories during the war. Many did not want to go back to their
old roles of wives or mothers.
