I know it's difficult for you to understand, bananahead, but I can appreciate both the sentiment behind those who waive the Confederate flag today, and hold the viewpoint that the entire Confederate Army from officers all the way up to the head of state should have been executed for treason at the end of the war
I think they did the right thing at the end of the Civil War, I thought it was magnanimous and merciful and practical, the only problem with it----and it was a huge problem!----was that while we were occupying the South (Reconstruction) we treated them just like part of America again, instead of having them on some form of 'probation' in Washington until Reconstruction was completed, probably needed another 20-50 years 'on top of' the 11-12 years total that it actually got.
It ended because of partisanship driven by Southern Democrats. It never should have ended like that. That would be like the Germans and Japanese in 1957 saying that 'everything's all better now you can go home', and us 'buying it'.
It could be, come to think of it, that the abysmal and premature end to Southern Reconstruction served as a lesson for the US after WWII when we began to occupy (West) Germany and Japan. We knew that even 11 years was not going to 'cut it', not even close. And we could not risk yet another global conflict caused by brain-damaged and or wicked ideology.