One of the reasons I mention a victor preventing history from being written is because many of the events surrounding the Civil War I have only learned of comparatively recently.
I never knew Lincoln sent warships to Sumter. Nothing was ever revealed in any of the history classes that I have attended which mentions the provocation of the Confederate forces at Charleston. All i've ever heard is that one day the hot heads opened fire against Union troops who were minding their own business, and thus started a war.
I didn't know the South produced the vast majority of the trans Atlantic trade for the US. I didn't know that virtually all the money came back through New York.
Details like this should have been front and foremost in any history text that purports to explain the war. Instead all we ever hear is slavery slavery slavery. Most Americans think the Union went to war with the South to eradicate slavery, and many people are surprised to learn that there were Union states that had slavery all through the war.
Most people don't know that Lincoln urged the passage of a bill to further protect slavery, and that this bill did in fact pass congress and would likely have become part of the Constitution if the seceded states had agreed to return.
Why are these important details left out of most history accounts of that period? One can only think they are left out because they reflect badly on those who won the war.
really sorry that you had such a poor education. Learned about those things in my junior high school history classe in the early 60s. Of course that was in Washington State.