The Confederate rebels relied on a combination of local militia, home guards, and independent guerrilla bands to halt the Federals, and to defend themselves against their Unionists neighbor. The single most important fact necessary to understand the guerrilla conflict is that it was not purely military in nature. It remained at heart a struggle to secure individual communities, whether against invading armies or disagreeable neighbors. In the end, the Union response to hybrid warfare succeeded, although it was by no means an easy victory. Given the reluctance of many guerrillas to lay down their arms, the Federals appear to have been more successful in intimidating rebel noncombatants than in quashing rebel irregulars. In fact, considering what happened in the years immediately after the war, when the United States faced the challenge of politically reconstructing the South, many ex-Confederates were not the least bit fazed by wartime Union policies.