"McPherson and Davis probably do not qualify as "Southern leaning" historians."

You can say that again LOL! Craig are you aware of the SCV boycott of McPherson?

"But, really, who does and why?"

I'm not gonna get involved in a dueling list of historians who present the southern cause in an honest light but believe it or not there are historians and learned men who do/did support the southern cause. (See my earlier post regarding Lord Acton). As for why they do this, is it possible they have drawn a different conclusion than Mr. McPherson or Mr. Davis?