“We began the War for the Union alone, but...The Nation was taught that God had linked to our own, the destiny of an enslaved race--that their liberty and our Union were indeed 'one and inseparable'... .”
-- James A. Garfield, May 30, 1868, retired U.S. Army general during Civil War, and later U.S. President in 1881.
Traces of Texas, a Facebook group I enjoy, shared this excerpt from author James H. Cook in his book: "50 Years on the Old Frontier," 1923.
"I had succeeded in transplanting myself from a state [Michigan, about 1875] where the people .... good citizens who loved God and nature ----- had accepted and, as a rule, lived up to the Ten Commandments; where, when trouble arose between men, it seldom was carried to a point beyond a fist fight. But in the section of Texas I had now entered, different conditions and codes prevailed. The War of Rebellion [Civil War] then so recent, had caused numerous men who had survived it and who had committed all sorts of desperate crimes, to seek refuge in the wilds of the land of chapparal and cactus, where the strong arm of the law seldom entered, and where, when it did, the refugee would be apt to have the best of it. A majority of the ranchmen in the country preferred aiding a white refugee to helping bring him to justice. The preference sprang from a motive of self-protection, for the enmity of such characters was a most dangerous thing. As there was in that section but little employment other than working with stock, naturally these men took up the life of the cowboy ---- when their time was not occupied dodging State Rangers or robbing stages and small settlements. Almost every dispute had to be settled with a gun-or-knife fight or else assassination. Such people, added to thieving bands of Mexicans and Indians, wild beasts of many sorts, and other terrors such as centipedes, tarantulas, and rattlesnakes, were a help in making life interesting ...
I did not let anyone know where I hailed from. A 'blue-bellied Yankee,' even if he were but a boy, was about the most unpopular thing in Texas at that period. With many people, anyone who came from the country lying to the north of the Red River was a Yankee."
Familysearch.org/ continues to be amazing with the number of databases they continue to upload. Three and a half billion records so far. With Memorial Day coming up, many of the PAID genealogy sites offer limited free access to veterans' records. But FamilySearch has many of those same records available for free 24/7. Or they might link to ancestry.com/ (a paid site) with whom they recently partnered on some databases. Curious about your Civil War ancestors? Familysearch has made it easier to locate their military docs.
"There are a lot of Civil War-related collections that don't say 'Civil War' on them," FamilySearch spokesman Paul Nauta said. The average person won't think to look at those. We've aggregated all these collections together online so a novice can go and see the broad spectrum of selections to see if they can find their ancestors."
Have a look at FamilySearch's database and its wiki article below. Don't know your ancestors' names? If you know your grandparents' full names and/or the names of your great-grands, you can trace backwards via the U.S. Census. Holler at me for more.
https://familysearch.org/civil-war#wiki_articles