Post-Civil War Reconstruction

In 1860, the federal budget was $63 million and in 1865, federal government expenditures totaled approximately $1.3 billion, not including the money spend by the Confederate government (Civil pp). In 1879, an estimate placed war-related costs to that date at $6.1 billion, and one estimate places expenditures for the Confederacy through 1963 at $2 billion, after that date, records are not available (Civil pp).

The Confederate states lost two-thirds of their wealth during the war, resulting in wide-scale economic destruction in the South (Civil pp). The loss of slave property through emancipation accounted for much of this, however the economic infrastructure was severely damaged, including railroads and industries, more than one-half of all farm machinery destroyed, and forty percent of all livestock had been killed (Civil pp). Between 1860 and 1870, Northern wealth increased by fifty percent, while Southern wealth decreased by sixty percent (Civil pp).

The...
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