Anyway, I have not relied exclusively on Northern teachers for an understanding of what happened back then. When I wanted to know why secessionists did what they did, I looked to their "secession declarations" for guidance. I found that the Mississippians who prepared Mississippi's Declaration of Secession were very frank about their motives and purposes. Slaves were viewed by them as the most valuable asset class in the world and they believed that secession was necessary to protect that asset class.
The secessionists were not naive. They knew that secession involved overthrowing the government of the United States (at least in the South) and they knew that governments are not overthrown without force and usually much violence. They also knew that revolutions sometimes fail.
Thank you for telling me about General Cleburne. He really must have been something special. ;-)
It is impossible to have a real discussion when you are at that ridiculous starting point. I reject that entire premise. There is something wrong with your ability to disseminate information, secession overthrows NOTHING.
"The withdrawal of a State from a league has no revolutionary or insurrectionary characteristic. The government of the State remains unchanged as to all internal affairs. It is only its external or confederate relations that are altered. To term this action of a Sovereign a 'rebellion' is a gross abuse of language."
Jeff Davis, President CSA