Reconstruction Chapter 15 Reconstruction both a time period & a process between 1865 and 1877 (from the end of the Civil War until the end of military reconstruction when the Union army withdrew from the South) the process was more complicated & complex: readmitting the Southern states, physically reconstructing & rebuilding Southern towns, cities, & property that had been destroyed during the war, and integrating newly freed blacks into U.S. society the goals & the questions: Lincoln spoke of the need to ?bind up the nation?s wounds? Slavery was finished but what system of labor should replace plantation slavery? What rights should the freedmen be accorded beyond emancipation? On what terms should rebellious states be restored to the Union?