There is not much evidence that northerners wanted to own, occupy or invest in the south. There is an abundant amount of evidence that the northern military men and politicians did not want the Confederacy to have an independent army, navy and foreign policy. The physical destruction visited on Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia, and extended late in the war to Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina, supports the conclusion that once the threat of independence was removed, there was no interest in owning or restoring the old south.