As Governor Phil Bryant celebrates slavery was awesome Confederate Heritage Month, the renewed controversy over whether Mississippi should display the Confederate battle flag in its state flag raises the southern enigma that is the Civil War. Despite being a war fought over the expansion of slavery, southerners, in general, find the Civil War much more interesting and romantic than northerners. But why?
I think it’s because the South was such a scrappy underdog in the war. Who doesn’t pull for the underdog? Here is a passage from Rebel Yell, S.C. Gwynne’s fantastic biography of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson:
…What the Confederacy had desperately needed, in a war it was obviously losing, was a myth on invincibility, proof that their notions of the glorious, godly, embattled, chivalric Southern character were not just romantic dreams. Proof that with inferior resources it could still win the war. Jackson, in his brilliant, underdog valley campaign, had finally given it to them. (emphasis added).
It’s hard to not pull for an underdog. Remember a few years ago when upstart Butler made it to the NCAA national championship game against Duke? Who, other than Duke fans, wasn’t pulling for Butler?
The Confederacy was a decided underdog in the Civil War. Yet they hung around, won some battles, embarrassed ‘Commissary’ Banks and other Union generals and invaded the north–twice.
Compare this to World War II. Germany ended up being an underdog. But it was a problem of its own making. Germany picked too many fights at once. Germany in WW II would be like Alabama challenging Ohio State, LSU, Auburn and Ole Miss to football games–all on the same day. Who’s going to pull for the best team biting off more than it can chew? No one.
The Civil War has other aspects that make it interesting for southerners. The war was fought in the South. We have all visited battlefields. The leading generals in the two armies all knew each other from West Point and the pre-war army. It was the biggest war in world history and the two side’s generals were the equivalent of college fraternity brothers. Interesting. 
The Civil War was my favorite era to study as a history major in college. It’s exceptionally interesting. But one thing I learned–which I wasn’t raised on in Mississippi–was that the war was fought to preserve slavery. The South started trying to deny that during the war to help its cause with England and France. Falsely denying that the war was fought over slavery is part of our confederate heritage.
If the South’s infatuation with the Civil War interests you and you have a sense of humor, there is no better book than Tony Horwitz’s classic Confederates in the Attic. It’s hilarious.
I wish I had the answer to our Civil War problem–I don’t. It doesn’t get less interesting even when you learn the truth about it.