Interesting post,Dixie. I'm glad you continue to post in this thread.

In the North, the freshly arrived immigrants...mostly poor Irish were sent into battle for the Union. If I had to guess, the male sons of the wealthy families in both the N and S had loopholes to avoid fighting.

This is slightly off topic, and again..not a Southerner so maybe it makes my opinion less valid , but I always felt that "white supremacy" "the klan" etc was a grand illusion meant to control and manipulate the poor and working class whites in the South and other parts of the country. Pezzonovante , is and was always interested in the color green primarily and if they were/are able to distract the masses and keep them divided, the focus is taken off of them and the things they do to maintain their wealth and power. I think it would startle some working class whites then and now if they realized that the pezzos. view them with as much disdain as they(some of the white working class) view Blacks and others.