the Yankee newspapers at the time , and now Historians kept it a secret about how the destruction of the south after the surrender went down in order to keep Lincoln's hero status. They pulled it off by refusing to accept the surrender until they were sure the armies were disbanded and all weapons surrendered, then the north sent in the crazies to loot rape and burn everything tore up railroad tracks bridges killed livestock burned atlanta to the ground
but history is written by the victor
the people up north never even knew it happened or they would not have worshipped Lincoln as such a hero , (that was before Twitter)