They need their mythology to absolve Lincoln of being the principle cause of the deaths of 2 million Americans, which included 25% of the freed slaves; a million black men, women and children who were alive when the war had ended but didn't exist when the 1870 census was taken.
The aftermath of Lincoln's War killed about 3x as many freed slaves as the war itself killed White combatants who fought for the Confederacy.
How the end of slavery led to starvation and death for millions of black Americans
Interesting article. The headline says ending slavery led to the death of millions of freed slaves. Then the first paragraph lowers that to 'hundreds of thousands'. Then later in the article it's a quarter of the former slaves died or suffered illnesses over an 8 year period during or after the war. Apparently the author has no idea.