The Civil War devastated and transformed the nation. The deadliest conflict in American history—some 600,000 to 750,000 Americans died—the Civil War freed nearly 4 million Americans who had been enslaved. Soldiers who survived brought new experiences and knowledge back to their families and communities, but many were also marked—like former slaves—by deep physical and emotional wounds. The war transformed the home front as well. Northern and southern women entered the labor force and the public arena in numbers never before imagined. The northern economy flourished and the South became more urbanized, but the Confederacy was left economically ruined. Meanwhile the federal government significantly expanded during the war. It also initiated programs, like the Homestead Act, that fueled migration, intensifying conflicts in the West and devastating numerous Indian nations. Altogether, the Civil War dramatically accelerated the pace of economic, political, and social change, transforming American society both during the war and for decades afterward.

Still, the legacies of the war were far from certain in 1865. Protests during the war reflected a growing sense of class inequalities while the abolition of slavery highlighted ongoing racial disparities. Moreover, even in defeat, white Southerners honored Lee and other “heroes” of the “Lost Cause” with portraits, parades, and statues. Confederate women also worked tirelessly to preserve the memory of ordinary Confederate soldiers and of heroines like Rose O’Neal Greenhow, who had drowned in 1864 while returning from a mission to gain support in Europe.

Victorious Northerners celebrated wartime heroes as well but recognized that much still needed to be done. Frederick Douglass joined other former abolitionists in seeking to enfranchise African American men to secure their rights as freedpeople. He and his colleagues had no illusions about the lengths to which many whites would go to protect their traditional privileges. Yet many northern whites, exhausted by four years of war, hoped to leave the problems of slavery and secession behind. Others sought to rebuild the South quickly to ensure the nation’s economic stability. These competing visions—between Northerners and Southerners and within each group—would shape the uncertainties of peace in ways few could imagine at the end of the war.