re: #41 William Lewis

I’ve always felt that before we let the rest of them go home, we should have introduced the Army of Northern Virginia to that quaint Roman legion custom of “Decimation”.

I am sure that you already know this…

There was a lot of sentiment for that at the time.

However, the leadership in the North was deeply concerned about sparking a guerrilla war.

So they instead settled for guarantees from the Southern leadership that their commands would disband and peacefully return home. And that the Southern leadership would not try that crap again. The hope was that everybody would be far too busy with their lives to pick another losing war.