Yup, like I said, they meant all of it. The trees, the rocks, the rivers. Free people, slaves, occupying Union soldiers. The air too.

Oooorrr it’s possible to use ✨reading comprehension✨ to understand what a person means, when the exact literal dictionary definitions of the words they used present a completely unreasonable statement. For example, it’s unreasonable to assume that my statement above actually reflects my belief, so you can assume that I’m not using the words literally.

It seems to me like you believe that imprisoning all of the Confederate soldiers is a monstrous idea. Why do you oppose it? They fought against and killed numerous innocent people, for their right to deprive others of their rights. It’s not monstrous to say that virtually every Confederate soldier who fought in the war of their own volition deserves prison.

Of course there is nuance. Turncoats and those forced into it don’t deserve to be punished. But carving out every single exemption when you refer to “all” of something would be tedious, especially when 99.9% of people reading understand you don’t mean to imprison the slaves.