re: #24 Shiplord Kirel

Southern Unionists really got the short end of the stick after Reconstruction, all in the name of “national reconciliation.” According to the Lost Cause mythology, they were “scalawags,” opportunists and defeatists. By the time of Gone With the Wind in the ’30s, this view was accepted as fact. Sam Houston was probably the most prominent anti-Confederate southerner but there were many others. Appalachia was a particular hotbed of Union sentiment, and there were several open rebellions against Confederate rule. This was successful in western Virginia, leading to the new state of West Virginia, but there were others and they were often ruthlessly suppressed by the Confederate authorities. At best, the hill people supported the Confederacy only grudgingly and with much evasion of service. The reasons for this resistance are simple: There were few slaves in the hills and the locals had no stake in slavery. Combine this with their traditional dislike of lowland aristocrats, and the stage was set for civil war within civil war.

That’s why I always defend West Virginia when people act like WV is just a bunch of inbred hicks. They had enough honor and decency to believe secession wrong. And you’re absolutely right. No one ever talks about the Southern Unionists. People here venerate Robert E. Lee for staying loyal to his state but I’ll take fellow Virginian George Thomas who remained loyal to his country. And let’s not forget the countless immigrants who showed more loyalty to their new homeland than the “natives.”