I had exactly the same experience. Hell, I graduated with a BA in history from a good university and I was taught NONE of the above. It was only when I started reading for myself years later....and not the course textbooks but earlier generations of historians in Academia and independent scholars outside of Academia that I learned any of the above. I was stunned. I couldn't believe it at first so I cross checked and read and read and read lots of different sources until I realized OH MY GOD....it IS true.
Funny, neither PBS nor the so-called "history" channel ever covers any of the above. They never even mention it. They won't even allow the Sons of Confederate Veterans to run commercials mentioning any of it. LOL! They turn down money just to prevent viewers from being exposed to the truth. Academia is even worse. They refuse to even mention anything but slavery slavery slavery and pretend history is some kind of morality play.
and of course, the federal government is always the "good" guy.
I had a friend since high school who is black. He was obsessed with race, and looking for racist things to fret about, and he constantly studied the civil war.
He decided he was going to major in History in college, and I used to go over to his house to lift weights with him. One day he told me that he had just learned from his history professor that Lincoln had deliberately started the civil war.
At this time, I never thought about the civil war. It just didn't matter to me, but when he told me Lincoln had started it on purpose, knowing fully well that he was starting it, I was perplexed.
This did not jive at all with what I had been taught growing up. Didn't the Confederates start it by firing on Fort Sumter for no reason?
Well my friend told me that Lincoln had sent a letter to Major Anderson telling him he would be attacked soon, and to hold the fort for 1 day then surrender.
He was laughing as he described how Lincoln "outsmarted" those stupid Confederates.
I remembered reading the "Red Badge of Courage" in High School, and having nightmares about it, so I was a little less amused at the thought that someone would deliberately start the most bloody and vicious war this nation ever had.
All those people dead and maimed because Lincoln wanted a war?
Well his narration of what happened got me started thinking about things being different from what I had been taught. I didn't discover that letter he was talking about until years later, and it wasn't from Lincoln, it was from one of the Cabinet secretaries, and it wasn't quite so cut and dried as he had said.
It didn't flat out say Anderson would be attacked, but it strongly implied it, and it did give him permission to surrender in order to prevent loss of life.
I guess my point here is that what they teach is distorted and not accurate. When I was learning civil war history in High School I asked at the time why the Confederates attacked, and I was told at the time that they were just a bunch of "hot heads" that attacked for no good reason.
Of course I found out later they had a very good reason, and Lincoln is the one who initiated hostilities, not them.
Looking at all the propaganda about January 6th and "Insurrection" I now have a better grasp of how the people in government controlled the media back in 1861, and how these same Liberals from the Northern states are still controlling it today.
It seems to me our modern enemies are the same enemies the Confederates were fighting 160 years ago.
And they are still controlling both Washington DC, and the "news."