[MuttTheHoople]

Of course, we Southerners don't need much of an excuse to get riled and start a fight. John Brown was cold-blooded for the Abolitionists, Bloody Bill Anderson was a killer for the Confederates.

Back then, States had much more meaning than they do now. Robert E. Lee was very much against secession, yet wouldn't go against his State. George Thomas, a fellow Virginian, decided that our country was greater than the State (it didn't hurt that he married a lady from New York State and despised slavery).

The Brown raid was very important, but the previous things I wrote about were the main catalysts.

[Pelham]

” John Brown was cold-blooded for the Abolitionists, Bloody Bill Anderson was a killer for the Confederates.”

There is at least one significant difference between the two and that’s timing. Brown’s murderous career was before the war and had a role in igniting it. Anderson was a guerilla in the middle of the war.