Too many people are all emotionally bound up in one side or the other from the war between the states. The Confederate states had mostly evil reasons for seceding (slavery) and consequently they are hardly heroic figures, even though some honorable people were on that side. Meanwhile, regardless of their reasons, they did have an absolute right to secede, just as the American colonists did a century before; therefore, the North was absolutely wrong in using violence to prevent it, even though some honorable people were on that side. Both sides are anathema to the conservative, because both were built on the assumption that government had the right to violently violate the rights of individuals (slaves and secessionists respectively). If either side had been following the Constitution, there would have been no war.
Thank you, Rodney King.
:-)