[GeorgefromGeorgia]

Lee and the other Southern leaders were patriots. While, I don't agree, that breaking up the Union was a good thing, consistent with Lockean principles, succession was legitimate. Further, constitutional scholars will admit that there were good legal arguments for succession.
Go back and read the debate that went on in Virginia concerning succession. Lee and and other Southerners were loyal to their states, which were once considered sovereign. Prior to the Civil War, the Federal Government had much less power than it does today.
As a Southerner who had ancestors that lived during the Reconstruction, I could recite stories from my Grandparents about how bad Reconstruction was. Reconstruction governments were filled with the worst kind of scum and illiterate former slaves.
Interesting that Northern and Southern Veterans frequently had conventions together in the years after the war. All were considered patriots.

[SoCal Pubbie]

"Further, constitutional scholars will admit that there were good legal arguments for succession."

If so, the southern states should have taken the matter to court, rather than engage in an armed rebellion.