re: 156 Years Ago: Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House

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Is it your belief that the confederacy was opposed to the governmentally sanctioned subjugation of people?

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Is it your belief that the Union Army fought to end slavery or even outlaw secession? Slavery existed in 4 Union states throughout the war. The Yankee government, despite warring with the Confederacy over secession, accepted West Virginia as a state in 1863 after it seceded from Virginia. The war fundamentally transformed the United States from a decentralized collection of sovereign states with a small federal government into a country with a highly centralized government that eventually came to dominate every aspect of a citizen's life.