At ease, trooper, I did not say or mean to imply anything of the sort. I have inlaws who had relatives in the Spanish-American War, WW1 and WW2 who were from the South, and did their duty like the true Americans they were.

I was simply alluding to teh fact that had secession been successful, we would not have been as united and strong as we would have needed to be for the '39-45 fracas. Sure, the independent South and its Northern neighbor might have allied forces, but what if the peaceful South had gone the way of Switzerland or Mexico and stayed out of it in a direct contributory way? I'm sure many of her sons would've joined the fray, but it ain't the same as being united from sea to shining sea.

Jamie