I just found out that one of my great great grandfathers served on the Confederate side

[MadrasT]

23. I am a Daughter of a Union Veteran

Great great grandpa fought 1861 - 1865 with the 98th PA and was at many major battles including Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and the Petersburg campaign. He was even at Appomattox when Lee surrendered. (I am sure he wasn't actually in the room, LOL.)

Some say many if not most Confederate soldiers simply fought for their state - their "homeland" - and weren't fighting because they personally liked slavery. The war seemed glamorous and exciting and it was the honorable thing to do at the time.

I wouldn't automaticaly assume any ancestors of yours were raging racists who were fighting for slavery just because they fought for the South. We see the war through a different lens now.

Of course some of the border states where we had troops on both sides get a little more complicated.

I did not have anscestors that fought for the South, the rest of my family was still in Europe. But if I did, it would not cause me any grief or upset.

All we think about now is "slavery" but the war was much more complicated than that IMO.

I wish we could have addressed the question of states' rights to secede without the horror of slavery making that question become a minor point. I think states should be able to secede (but seceding to keep slavery was such a horrible wrong it had to be crushed).