They cannot bring themselves to acknowledge the aggression and coercion used against the South to provoke into war, so they hide it under "The Lost Cause" theory. This anti-Southern rhetoric sounds knowledgeable and superior to Southern beliefs and is meant to demean the Southern feelings for their dead. When ever I see it used as an explanation for the organized efforts to honor the Confederates I know the author does not sincerely believe the men who died in the Northern prisons were even American.