1865 had a severe shortage of treason convictions and subsequent hangings. (though I am unfamiliar with these 'atrocities' you refer to.)
No surprise there. They are not, ah, well publicized in histories, though you can find references to Sherman marching POWs in front of his columns. The same for the Roswell factory workers. Also not publicized much is how his solders urged slaves they met to leave, but the now emancipated slaves had nowhere to go, and so tagged along with Sherman's columns, though he hated it because it hampered his operations.
Today's built environment is one that has evolved to use the ICE car. This is the environment that electric cars must compete in. Unlike ICE cars versus horses where the advantages of a car were obvious if the vehicle and fuel were reliable, the electric car advantages to the owner are not so stark. (There are nice things like not going to gas stations for regular commuting travel, etc.) The benefits accrue mostly indirectly and to society, that means that society is going to have to help things along.
Today's environment began with electric and steam powered cars. At one time a land speed record was held by an electric car. Steam cars had a latency issue. Stanley Steamer (the car, not the cleaning service) owners would sometimes like to fire up their cars, walk a few paces ahead, call it, and the car seemingly hear it and coming to them. That's how long it took to build up enough steam to move forward.
On roads: Rural areas tend to have dirt roads. This was the nature of things from coast to coast really until the post WWII years. Roads were important, though then, as now, quality varied from location to location. I know of some old dirt roads that had ditching and have seen some of the old wooden bridges where you just had one lane, with two parallel lines of boards for your tires. Last years heard a crew talking about an out-of-the-way place in my old neck of the woods, and when I learned it was now loose gravel, it struck me funny because I've been down it when it was mud, sand, and slick clay. Gravel roads? That's riding in style.
Oh: Should mention most of my involvement here isn't just history. From time to time have had to look for easements and the question of what came first, the road or the power line. In one case, it was the power line; in another, the road. You win some, you lose some. Anyway, property records have land acquisitions for road paving, so if someone takes the time to look, they can find when a road was paved. For most in our area, it was post WWII. A grandfather got a job once helping to pave a road (concrete, not asphalt), and that was prior to WWII, but was also considered a major route. For where I grew up, it was all dirt roads until the 1950s.
Yes, railroads was used for long-distance travel, the term "long-distance" varying from location to location. But railroads aren't everywhere. Neither were the steamboats they replaced on all but rivers like the Mississippi. You needed descent roads initially for reliable mail (seriously - going back to late 18th and early 19th Centuries here) and for moving goods via wagon. Like many things, the term "descent" is relative. If you want some documentation, there's what happened to Eisenhower when he led a convoy across country in 1919.
When I read of electric car advantages, I had to grin. Today I've driven further than what you said you drive in a week, and will likely have to drive some more before it's over. If all someone is going to do is putter around town, then it might be viable if the power stays on. Here? Not so much, and we're not even talking about distances that are common out West. Other than the Telsa Cybertruck I saw last year and a Ford Lightning I saw this year, the only electric vehicles I've seen locally are electric scooters in towns and what looks like an electric two-wheel skateboard with handles. That makes sense, since a non-electric is pretty much needed between the towns, and the electric scooters are a fun and viable option, like the old electric golf carts (which were never considered road-rated in most places, but were still used).
