By: Kevin Bosco After the end of the Civil War at Appomattox, our nation’s leaders attempted to reorganize state and local governments in the fallen Confederacy, reestablish normal relations between the North and South, and to instill a sense of national loyalty once again. What transpired was a unforgiving Congress whose reconstruction policies failed to aid the South in economic, political, and social progress. Instead, spiteful legislation which wasdesigned to seek revenge on the Confederacy limited the immediate possibility of a once again prosperous Union. The Radical Republicans serving in the United States Congress in the period after the Civil Wa