Conclusion
Southern whites paid a terrible price in mangled bodies and lives lost in their bid to win independence and perpetuate slavery. On the defensive since the late eighteenth century when the Western world turned against slavery, they saw in Lincoln’s election, followed by his call for troops in April 1861, the realization of their worst fears. Duty, honor, and the protection of loved ones motivated them to fight for liberties that in their minds were inseparable from the ownership of slaves. Many non-slaveholders in the mountains and backcountry opposed the Confederacy by 1863 and slaves fled to Union armies wherever they could, but slaveholders fought on with ever greater desperation. As the losses mounted, whites came to understand the war as divine retribution for their sins and those of the nation.