Confederates were democRATS, every stinking one of them.
The Democrats of the 19th century WERE the Constitutional Conservatives of the day.
Parties flipped starting around 1930. The Liberal Big City Republicans became Democrats, and the Democrats became conservative Republicans.
Ronald Reagan was a Democrat, if that helps you to understand what happened.
Democrats of 1860 were opposed to taxes and big government, just like modern Republicans. Republicans of 1860 were race obsessed big city liberals that loved to tax and spend on big government projects so they could get kickbacks for their crony capitalist buddies, same as modern Democrats.