Alan, I appreciate your point of view and I understand where you're coming from.

The context in which I view it is that our ancestors decided (rightly or wrongly) to take on the United States, and they suffered the consequences. War is always messy, civilians always get caught up in it, expedience supercedes morality, and victory is the goal to the exclusion of all other considerations.

Germany, Japan, and many other nations failed to appreciate the lesson of the Civil War -- don't take on the United States.

I guess the reason why I don't do well in sharing personal opinions about the Civil War is that I had no personal involvement in that war, and no one I know personally was killed, wounded or otherwise abused. True, my Confederate ancestors four generations removed from me suffered grievous losses in that war, but that has no direct, personal impact on me. So, while I admit to a strong interest in the Confederate, indeed Arkansas, side of things, I view the war from a (hopefully) strictly historical perspective and leave emotion out of it. The Confederate States lived and died long, long before I was born.

I suppose my views are influenced by the fact that I've never considered myself to be a hyphenated-American. My family has been here since the late 1600's. America is imprinted in our heart and soul. We just happen to be everyday, run-of-the-mill Americans who recite the Pledge of Allegiance with a southern accent and have always lived in the South.

Anyway, that's probably more than anyone cares to know about my opinions. Your posts are among those that I always look forward to reading, and I hope we can continue to cooperate to help other researchers (and ourselves) uncover more information about this most important period of American history.