Frank,

You know that's an interesting question. As a reminder, my ancestors are about 50/50 Union and Confederate, but I grew up in Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee. Needless to say, I'm culturally Southern and I dream in "gray", but as a child playing "Yanks and Rebs", I lost most of the time as the Confederates. But I fought valiantly and took twice my number before I fell.

Seriously, I wonder how many other Southerners on this site when they took imaginary musket in hand as a child, played out the legacy that we were descended from soldiers of the losing side, but we knew our Southern ancestors "fought like the very devil" and to the bitter end.

In my opinion, this little innocent question of yours may have touched on something insightful about the Southern spirit that still lives in many of us today.

Frank, that's probably more of a serious answer than you expected, but your question took me back to a time that when I wasn't playing "Cowboys and Indians", I was a kid in a kepi, a gray kepi.

BTW, sometimes you'll see a gentleman named Ken Martin, my double first cousin, who also posts on these sites. Ken is a few years younger, so when we played together as kids, he got to be the Yankee. I think he is stilled scarred. :-)

Jim