The war is over—the rebels are our countrymen again.

Grant’s line expresses a reconciliationist impulse at the close of the Civil War: once armed resistance has ceased, former Confederates should be treated not as perpetual enemies but as fellow citizens to be reintegrated into the Union. The phrasing underscores a shift from wartime categories (“rebels”) to civic belonging (“countrymen again”), implying that the proper postwar task is political restoration and social healing rather than continued vengeance. In sentiment it aligns with Grant’s well-known preference for magnanimity at Appomattox and his later emphasis on restoring national unity—though the quote’s exact provenance is uncertain.