Our Confederate ancestors deserve better from this nation. They fought for what they believed in and lost.
So did John Walker Lindh. Should we "honor" him, too? Even if we assume that the war had nothing to do with slavery (which is a HUGE assumption), these men fought against the United States. Why should the United States then turn around and honor them? As a pragmatic matter, their treason against the United States was overlooked and forgiven. Shouldn't that be enough?
Most important, we should remember that when they surrendered, they gave up the fight completely. Defeated Confederate soldiers did not resort to guerrilla warfare or form renegade bands that refused to surrender. These men simply laid down their arms, went home and lived peacefully under the U.S. flag.
Some did. Others joined the Klan and used terror tactics to murder and terrorize black Americans and keep them from exercising their rights as Americans. Now, these were not Confederate guerrillas, but they certainly did not simply lay down their arms and "live peacefully."
The Klan was formed to keep the carpetbaggers from the North from terrorizing Southerners.