Thank you for such balanced comments.
I stated that I have not studied Civil War History and do not dwell in the past.
My ancestors left the deep south because of intolerable government abuse.
My grandfather said his Dad never talked about it, but the experience left indelible impressions on him. He knew real hunger as a child. He always had a huge garden, far too much to eat, and was quiet and knowledgeable.
He and his mother left Alabama after the father left them, the father was wanted for murder of carpet baggers and would have been hanged if he was caught. He was not caught, but wound up in Arkansas. The family found him after the turn of the century.
You wonder why so many of the courthouse were burned to the ground in much of the south. Part of the time it was to erase the records.
That’s funny, I could have sworn most of the lynchings and burnings wer to kill republicans because they weren’t racists like the democrat southerners??