Yes. I'm afraid some people don't remember that a lot of us have ancestors that can be traced back to one side or the other, or both.
My great-great-great (I think that's the right amount of "greats") grandfather, Absalom Knotts fought for the Confederate side. I don't know what his personal feelings were on slavery, but I don't think there were a lot of slaveholders in his region of Virginia, which is now in the heart of West Virginia.
My guess is that it was more of a sovereignty issue, for him, at least. But who knows...it was a long time ago.
I have posted this many times, but it bears repeating for those stuck in the delusional world that the war was soley over slavery.
In the museum at Shiloh there is a letter from a soldier--it was undelivered to his family because it wasn't addressed--and due to the author's death. In it he expresses surprise that the northern soldiers had slavery on the mind--It goes somewhat like this [not exact cause my memory is somewhat lousy!]
Southern boy-- "Why you tryin to kill me?"
Northern boy--"Free your slaves."
Southern boy--"I ain't got no slaves!"
Northern boy--"Why you tryin to kill me?"
Southern boy--"Cause you came down here to kill me!"
Well, slavery wasn't on the mind of that boy--and he was there at Shiloh--still is. Poor uneducated boys bled and died and not to defend someone else's right to own a slave--they fought to protect their homes, family, and property--they fought to protect their southern culture--
So to come on this thread and insult those boys--who were buried like dogs in a mound--is sick and ugly.
I, too, had ancestors who fought for the Confederacy (& the State of North Carolina), including:
William, Hiram, Washington & Thomas Vickers (Orange County NC);
Daniel, James, Henry & Richard Baker (Wilson County NC);
John & Bennett Webb (Edgecombe County NC);
and others whose names I cannot remember now.
Washington & Thomas Vickers died, as did Henry & Richard Baker.
These young men left behind mothers, fathers, wives and children, but curiously enough, none of them left behind any slaves. That's a FACT.
For this character to denigrate us as "peckerwoods", "licensed idiots", "woefully ignorant", etc., insults the dead as well as the living.
As far as I'm concerned he might as well p!ss on their graves, and spit in my face.
Maybe he really thought we would "justshutupandtakeit"?
Then again, maybe that's what Lincoln, Grant, Sherman and their gang of thugs thought as well.
Deo Vindice,
CD