Now this is nonsense. The causes of the Civil War were multifaceted, but to boil it down to "Northern aggression/nothing to do with slavery" is just as disingenuous as boiling it down to "The South started it by shooting at Fort Sumter/it was all about slavery." As for atrocities, the CW saw a fair share from both sides. One of my ancestors was a Massachusetts cavalryman, which has given me an interest in Yankee cav during the Civil War, and the kind of brutality they faced from Confederate partisans (many of whom were too yellow to actually join up and fight like men) is enough to make your blood run cold.
The "barbaric hordes of blue belly beasts" were doing exactly what the Confederate troops were doing, fighting for their state, and they fought with equal honor. Three of my other ancestors served in Wisconsin infantry regiments, one of them started the war a private and finished a captain, with more than one severe wound sustained in the process...And he didn't rise in the ranks for eating Southern babies.
"The Yankees" do have pride, heritage, and American soul. Even here in Massachusetts, conservatives make up about 35% of the population, but we are totally disenfranchised. My conservative southern Massachusetts town (in which I see Confederate flags on lawns and trucks everyday, btw) is somehow in the same district as an extremely liberal city 50 miles away, that replaced Good Friday with "LGBT Friday" in the public schools.
I understand you are responding to a dork who is trying to get under Southerners' skins, but that doesn't excuse tarring all Yankees with the same brush or impugning the honor of OUR ancestors.
The battle isn't between Yankees and Southerners anymore, it's between liberals and conservatives, and the majority of conservatives, regardless of where they're from, respect and honor the brave men who fought and died for the South.
Good post.