Northerners felt that in order to win the war they had to do more than compel Confederates submission. Northerners imagined the Civil War as a battle waged to deliver the south from the clutches of the "Slave Power”. Many accounts reported that Northerers’ felt proud that they won the Southerners’ over and restored their love for the union while freeing slaves, many of which had lost years of their lives in the “Slave Power” system.