I am simply challenging the naive "South was always right" doctrine. I know both sides had legitimate arguments. Both sides had their heroes and their "flops". We have an advantage over the participants of the Civil War. We have all the political and military intelligence that they lacked. We can use this so we can really understand the big picture. Or we can stay in the trench and only see the war as it looked to a foot soldier on one side. Once I studied only one perspective and believed it was completely right without question. But I kept coming across stacks of documents that challenged some of those views. It was a dilemma. I had to make a decision. I could get back in the trench where such matters do not threaten me and continue seeing things as a participant in 1861-1865. Or I could get out, take advantage of the passage of time, and survey the debris of war (documents) from both sides. What I find is neither side was all good or all bad. If I lived back then I could have served on either side. So today regarding the Civil War, I am very suspicious of anyone telling me that they were ALL WRONG and we are RIGHT. That these are "damned Yankees" and those are "damned traitors". I can no longer see things that way. I have moved from the trench years ago. I am not going to get dragged in with the overly dated argument if secession is legal or not. That's for trench dwellers. Regardless if the Confederacy had appropriate justification on firing on Ft. Sumter, it was the biggest military blunder of the war. It silenced the calls for letting the South go in peace and ensured a tragic war would begin. It was a moment for strategy that instead became tragedy. Yes, I admire Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. Scott K. Williams,