An interesting aftershock of the Civil War was the 1924 Democratic Convention. One of the reasons the frontrunner, William G. McAdoo, did not get the nomination was that he had been born in Georgia in 1863, a time when neo-Confederates were still claiming that the state was not part of the United States. So, his opponents argued, if Georgia was not part of the United States in 1863, then McAdoo was not a natural born citizen of the United States and so ineligible for the presidency. They said that the neo-Confederates could not have it both ways. Rather than admit that Lincoln was right, southern Democrats were forced to give up on McAdoo.
Thank you for the history lesson on my adopted state. I love this place. Unfortunately, I'll go to my grave as "...that feller from New York City" instead of as a Mountaineer.