Except in this case, an awful lot of "Northern victor's history" was written from a very pro-Southern point of view. Whatever historians are saying now, for over fifty years in the early 20th century they were a lot friendlier to the secessionists than Northerners at the time were or Americans today are.A lot of southerners have come to consider as vindication what northerners only intended as mercy and politeness. This can always be seen when the subject of Jefferson Davis being released without trial comes up.