Before having read this I had stated this very opinion with my mother in law whose a history buff. It makes sense when you think of it. A greater injustice was done when we consider how lacking most of them were. Many a poor white particulary in the South didn't fair alot better.
When all this came to a boil cooler heads could have prevailed, and through diplomacy, and maybe a couple more years, things may have possibly changed in the South for the South, as well as the North, but we'll never know?.
Sherman, his march, and his men had the same mentality of Saddam Hussein when his men aggressively entered Kuwait. They did the same thing, even setting fire to the oil fields.