Was the South Ever Confederate, Anyway?
A worthwhile read.
In The Scruffy Citizen by Jack Neely
Everybody has an opinion about whether the Confederate flag is good or bad. Theyre all dug in. Some are certain its racist and the very signature of evil. Others say its purely an expression of Southern pride and reverence for ancestors who fought and died a long time ago. Some of them have devoted careers and personal reputations to these propositions. A newspaper column is not going to change any minds.
The Civil War is a big bagful of ironies and paradoxes, and not a recommended study for folks who like to keep things simple. It would be a particular challenge for anyone to survive the 1860s in Knoxville and either idealize one side or demonize the other. It took a later generation, one that didnt remember the war, to glorify it.
I do want to point out something provable. Whether the Confederate flag is an irredeemably racist and oppressive symbol or not, the Confederacy is not the South. It is not the South now, certainly. It was not even the South in 1861. The conflation of the Confederacy with the South began, I suspect, as some tired editors attempt to make a headline fit.
More-
http://www.knoxmercury.com/2015/07/01/was-the-south-ever-confederate-anyway/