Civil War by Other Means

"In Civil War by Other Means, Jeremi Suri, shows how the victory of the Union was never secure and the resistance to it began immediately. Key Confederate figures fled to exile in Mexico after their defeat and returned when they could safely resume their former lives once the threat of Northern domination had been quashed. Many antebellum influences and attitudes lived on secretly, and their creeping influence gradually overwhelmed Lincoln's vision for a more progressive and egalitarian America. The Civil War, in short, was never completely over for the defeated; they pursued it through guile, stealth, and persistence, outlasting the resolve of the northern interlopers and returning the South to its retrogressive customs and habits"--