Just started reading the memoirs (798 pages!!) of General U.S.Grant. Among his first words are "the war was fought over slavery". This is true, wether your convictions were humanitarian as many had in the north, or economic as for many in the south. Think of all the human capital that was at stake. Much of the value in a plantation was in the human capital it owned. The system was doomed.
BTW, Grant would load his pockets with 20+ cigars at the beginning of each day and would reach into a pocket during the heat of a battle and found he was out!
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