The Panic of 1873 exceeded Reconstruction rollbacks in material destruction.

Evidence

Neither ex-Confederates voting again nor the Slaughterhouse ruling could compare to the destructive force of the Panic of 1873. It was the first major economic depression of American industrial capitalism and lasted the rest of the decade. Southern Democrats declared their ability to restore order, just as the oil man John D. Rockefeller and the steel man Andrew Carnegie declared their ability to monitor their industries. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 676