Herman Melville was born in

(1) Herman Melville, Battle Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866)

There were excesses which marked the conflict, most of which are perhaps inseparable from a civil strife so intense and prolonged, and involving warfare in some border countries new and imperfectly civilized. Barbarities also there were, for which the Southern people collectively can hardly be held responsible, though perpetrated by ruffians in their name.

Let us revere that sacred uncertainty which forever impends over men and nations. Those of us who always abhorred slavery as an atheistical iniquity, gladly we join in the exulting chorus of humanity over its downfall. But he should remember that emancipation was accomplished not by deliberate legislation; only through agonized violence could so mightily a result by effected. In our natural solicitude to confirm the benefit of liberty to the blacks, let us forbear from measures of dubious constitutional rightfulness toward our white countrymen - measures of a nature to provoke, among other of the last evils, exterminating hatred of race toward race.