Dedicated to the proposition...

 Remembering my great great grandfather, Corporal John Marion Woodyard, Company H, 12th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry. His brother, Jerome, died of typhoid fever near Harper's Ferry. John named his son Arthur Jerome, that son was my mother's grandfather. This book is a great read, btw. Part of it is written by a woman, about her journey to bury her husband. On the way back she was captured and held as a POW for a time. Her writing is charming, frank, fun. 

Extraordinary deeds, ordinary people called by their conscience, none famous, few recognized. So grateful for this heritage. They took their cause personally and from what Hewitt says, most believed that they were shooting the shackles off of four million human beings. 

He was disgusted after the war with attempts to memorialize Confederate soldiers, and talks about that in the conclusion:

" However, regarding the war from a moral and political standpoint, it sometimes seems as if the war did not last long enough. It took years of the terrible scourge of war, it would appear, to convince the people of the seceded states, and to wring from them the acknowledgement that they were better off without slavery than with it. And perhaps if the war had lasted a little longer, and the Rebels had felt still further the scourge of war, those who now have so much respectful regard for the flag of treason, and the Lost Cause and their defenders, might have finally become convinced that one flag and one cause and its defenders are enough to honor; and that there should be no place in the patriotic regard and affection of the people in this free land of ours for the Rebel flag, the Lost Cause or their defenders. Big as this country is it ought to be too little to give room for any display of honor to the Rebel flag, the Lost Cause, or their champions, dead or alive. Therefore, no soldier who would be faithful to his country and the cause for which he fought should join in any ceremony of decorating Rebel graves, of holding reunions with Rebels, or of putting up monuments to them."

So much for the "States Rights'" theory.  Living here in WV we still see the Confederate flag on a daily basis- on tshirts, bumper stickers, in yards and windows. I believe this environment may have been what drove our grgrandfather out, to Iowa.

The picture/ link at the left goes to the West Virginia book company, a local small business focusing on literature relevant to the state. The link below is one of Project Gutenberg, and a free book available in several formats.

 History of the 12th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry