Have you ever had a big brother hide the last cupcake and tell you none is left only to find out he was saving it for himself?

Emotionally many people North, South, Black, White, Slave Non-slave, as they dig into family and regional history discover that what they have been taught both formally (schooling etc) and informally (fanily lore, social bias, etc) is not quite the truth or the whole story, react with the same feelings as if they missed the last cupcake.

As a genealogy hobbyist, and rank amateur civil war historian I've learned to accept the truth for what it is and not be ashamed, alarmed, or reactionary to it. I've found that the truth may hurt but it never harms you. This of course is a corollary to the idea that there is an objective right and wrong, truth and non-truth, a philosophical position that some secular humanists with tendancies toward situational ethics would disagree with. More power to them and thankfully they can express their opinion.

I suspect that in this day and age there is less classic North/South viewpoint as much as an informed/uninformed differential. Both political sides with the blessing of the middle fought with honor, effort, fearlessness, selfishness, greed, anger, and sorry to admit depredations. War is human kind at its ugliests and little is to be gained by trying to convince someone who was less ugly.

FWIW John Russell