Quote Originally Posted by Marshal Murat
Loyalty and Duty are still virtues, and to follow them to the end is a very honorable thing to do. Even more so when you know what you are fighting for is morally wrong. Lee hoped to change the Confederacy after the war, and make slavery a non-existent entity. He valued his homeland above the Federals from the north, those who didn't understand the southern view. They fought for a homeland, the Union fought for unification.
I beg to differ. Loyalty and Duty, without Moral Judgement are hollow and lead to hell. It is the kind of nonsense that created the very worst of war crimes. The moreso when combined with a misplaced patriotism based on an arbritary line on a map.

If General Lee truly hoped to change the Confederacy after the war, then he was naive as well as a traitor. History is littered with such fools, and their names are invariably on the same roll as the butchers and evil-doers - but usually, if their party has won, as a mere footnote in history having failed to accomplish any change and having been gently sidelined or not-so-gently done away with.

Quote Originally Posted by Marshal Murat
Every man in history has fought for his home, despite any misgivings he had about their policy.


I begin to see where your quixotic views come from if you think that is the case. History is full of men fighting for much, much baser reasons, and they outnumber the noble patriots by several orders of magnitude.

How, for example, do you explain the Gurkhas, Nepalese mercenaries who have fought for the British Crown for many years, are regularised into regiments, and are some of the finest and most honourable warriors of my acquaintance? They certainly don't fight for their home.