Over 600,000 Americans lost their lives in the Civil War, with the Northern troops suffering higher losses. The North believed the sacrifice was worth it: The slaves were freed and the Union was preserved. The people of the South, on the other hand, began almost immediately to glorify the “lost cause.” Their generals became mythic heroes, and they looked wistfully back at the antebellum period. They almost regretted surrendering.

Over 600,000 Americans lost their lives in the Civil War, with the Northern troops suffering higher losses. The North believed the sacrifice was worth it: The slaves were freed and the Union was preserved. The people of the South, on the other hand, began almost immediately to glorify the “lost cause.” Their generals became mythic heroes, and they looked wistfully back at the antebellum period. They almost regretted surrendering.