If the war could have been fought again, I'd have sided with the south. I'd have opposed slavery, but I would have been happy to give my life to fight for my independence against an alien force. Again, something you northerners still haven't figured out, is that while slavery was an issue in the south, it wasn't an issue in the North. At least, not to anyone that mattered anyway. The entire argument that the Civil War was about slavery, because the South depended on slaves is illogical, because the North wasn't interested in freeing slaves. To the North, it was about money and power.
"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 16th. President of the United States, edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume V, "Letter to Horace Greeley" (August 22, 1862), p. 388.
"If I thought this war was to abolish slavery, I would resign my commission, and offer my sword to the other side." --Ulysses S. Grant
"The Southern Confederacy will not employ our ships or buy our goods. What is our shipping without it? Literally nothing....It is very clear that the South gains by this process, and we lose. No---we MUST NOT "let the South go." "----Union Democrat , Manchester, NH, February 19, 1861