Neo-Confederates also forget that most federal government spending in the ante bellum period was in the South. Do they ever wonder why, for example, Pensacola, Norfolk, and Charleston had powerful harbor forts while Boston, New York, and Philadelphia did not?I'm not sure about the relative funding of public works in the North and South. You may be right. However, as far as forts go, what about Fort Hamilton and Fort Diamond (later Lafayette) in New York Harbor, Fort Delaware in the Delaware River south of Philadelphia, Fort Warren in Boston, and Fort McHenry in Baltimore?
And there's Fort Clinton in NYC's Battery Park too. But they were old forts -- the modern, massive ones were in the South.