He was dead on too. Both sides had a draft going on and most had no choice but to fight. Some thought fighting was a better life than living life as a poor farmer as most Southerners were back then.

With the exception of my earlier family line in Virginia and North Carolina we owned ZERO slaves. My 4th Great Grandfather had the bright idea to move to Alabama from North Carolina (with a stop in Georgia in between) from his family who were pretty well off. I think his Father actually owned at least 13 slaves that we know of as they were willed to the kids, but the 4th was already in Alabama or Georgia when his Dad died so he didn't get the slave that was willed to him. From then on we were pretty freaking poor. Almost 200 years later and I live 20 miles West of where my family first moved to in Alabama. Some of my cousins still live on that land today. We had a good bit of land, but were nothing but poor farmers. That defined my whole family pretty much on both sides. My Mom's side was about an hour South of my Dad's, and they were just poor farmers and bootleggers as well. Her side definitely owned no slaves either.

But if you let the media tell it, we ALL owned slaves back then and that simply was not the case. We were all like Leonardo Di Caprio in Django and that definitely was not the case. Most of my folks grew up in freaking shacks. My Great Grandfather couldn't even read or write for God's sake. My Great Grandfather on my Mom's side lost his Dad at 4 and had to stay home to farm and make whiskey to support his family. Then lost two kids before they hit 30 on top of losing a brother when he was young too due to fever.

That tells you how great we were living before and after the Civil War.