Answer: Most white Southerners reacted to defeat and emancipation with dismay. Many families had suffered the loss of loved ones and the destruction of property. Some thought of leaving the South altogether, or retreated into nostalgia for the Old South and the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.
Explanation:
THESE ARE NOT MY WORDS! I got it from another source: https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/exhibits/reconstruction/section2/section2_intro.html
