- The Lost Cause of the Confederacy (The Myth of the Lost Cause), American Battlefield Trust, James M. McPherson

As the Civil War drew to a close in 1865, Southerners looked around at the death and destruction that the war had inflicted on their homes, businesses, towns, and families. “The South was not only…conquered, it was utterly destroyed…More than half [of] the farm machinery was ruined, and…Southern wealth decreased by 60 percent,” states historian James M. McPherson. With the abolition of slavery becoming the law of the land in 1865, it became harder and harder for many Southerners to justify the purpose of secession and the war as they grieved over the deaths of nearly 300,000 of their sons, brothers, fathers, and husbands.

Thus, many Southerners set to work to remember the Confederate cause in a positive light. Former Confederate general and one-time commander of the United Confederate Veterans claimed, “If we cannot justify the South in the act of Secession, we will go down in History [sic] solely as a brave, impulsive but rash people who attempted in an illegal manner to overthrow the Union for our Country.” Thus, from the ashes of war, the “Lost Cause” was born. There are six main parts of the Lost Cause myth, the first and most important of which is that secession had little or nothing to do with the institution of slavery. Southern states seceded to protect their rights, their homes, and to throw off the shackles of a tyrannical government...

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/lost-cause-definition-and-origins

That's one thing I've never understood, the unique wish to hang on to the memories of a war the South lost so badly - which still exists today. Living where I do, I'm much more familiar with the Revolutionary War, my grandmother grew up in "Old Saratoga" and we visited many museums and monuments with her. In fact, my great grandfather's farm is now located on the Saratoga Battlefield since one of the buildings was Revolutionary War vintage. And I grew up in nearby Saratoga Springs.

And the article I posted did hit home with me, we've seen TFG's obvious prejudices from the beginning, "Fine people on both sides," etc. But how he's gotten away with his obvious racism, which has gotten extreme in his deportations is tough to believe. We learned about the Civil Rights Movement in history classes, but it looks like the next generation will be prohibited from not only learning about that part of our history, but that we'll have to experience it all over again sometime in the future. And I come from immigrants just as every other American does and it boggles the mind that this bigot is allowed to decide who is welcome here and who is not.