The banks had failed early in the war.

Two billion dollars invested in slaves had been wiped out.

Factories, which had been running before the war or were developed after 1861 in order to supply the blockaded country, had been destroyed by Federal raiders or seized and sold or dismantled because they had furnished supplies to the Confederacy.

Mining industries were paralyzed.

Public buildings which had been used for war purposes were destroyed or confiscated for the uses of the army or for the new freedmen's schools.