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I recommend reading Ron Chernow's highly acclaimed Grant to understand why people did what they did after the Civil War.
There were only two generals in the Civil War with a sense of strategy -- that is to say an understanding of how to win the war. They were Grant and Winfield Scott. Grant implemented Scott's much-derided "Anaconda Plan" to win the war.
Grant's strategic sense allowed him to look BEYOND the war and ask, "What should we do next?" Basically, Grant did two things: He raised Black regiments, to give the freed slaves dignity and a sense of having earned their freedom, and he gave honor and dignity to the former Confederate generals. He allowed them, for example, to keep their swords. He protected them from harassment and persecution. His aim was to put the country back together, and he succeeded remarkably -- not perfectly, but remarkably well.
Louisiana, for example, was the hotspot for the KKK. The KKK was crushed in Louisiana by "Pete" Longstreet -- Robert E. Lee's "Old Warhorse."
Grant's wise policies to unite the country continued after his death -- in the Spanish-American War, the government made sure one of the commanders was a former Confederate general, Wheeler. National Guard units, both North and South, took descent from former Civil War units, and fought side-by-side.
In WWI, the rapidly expanding Army needed posts, and those in the South were named mostly for Confederate generals -- a measure taken to contribute to national unity.
A division, the 29th Infantry Division, called "The Blue and the Gray" was formed of former Confederate and Union regiments. In WWII, this was the division that landed on Omaha Beach, where the heaviest fighting occurred. The assault regiment was the 116th Infantry, the "Stonewall Brigade." They took 50% casualties that day.
What you see when you look at monuments and other tributes to the Confederate Army is a century and a half of healing and pulling the country together after our bloodiest war.
There were only two generals in the Civil War with a sense of strategy -- that is to say an understanding of how to win the war. They were Grant and Winfield Scott. Grant implemented Scott's much-derided "Anaconda Plan" to win the war.
Grant's strategic sense allowed him to look BEYOND the war and ask, "What should we do next?" Basically, Grant did two things: He raised Black regiments, to give the freed slaves dignity and a sense of having earned their freedom, and he gave honor and dignity to the former Confederate generals. He allowed them, for example, to keep their swords. He protected them from harassment and persecution. His aim was to put the country back together, and he succeeded remarkably -- not perfectly, but remarkably well.
Louisiana, for example, was the hotspot for the KKK. The KKK was crushed in Louisiana by "Pete" Longstreet -- Robert E. Lee's "Old Warhorse."
Grant's wise policies to unite the country continued after his death -- in the Spanish-American War, the government made sure one of the commanders was a former Confederate general, Wheeler. National Guard units, both North and South, took descent from former Civil War units, and fought side-by-side.
In WWI, the rapidly expanding Army needed posts, and those in the South were named mostly for Confederate generals -- a measure taken to contribute to national unity.
A division, the 29th Infantry Division, called "The Blue and the Gray" was formed of former Confederate and Union regiments. In WWII, this was the division that landed on Omaha Beach, where the heaviest fighting occurred. The assault regiment was the 116th Infantry, the "Stonewall Brigade." They took 50% casualties that day.
What you see when you look at monuments and other tributes to the Confederate Army is a century and a half of healing and pulling the country together after our bloodiest war.
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