Jefferson: yes, he realized the problems with slavery but these things were ages old; they didn't begin in North America and they would eventually work out without war since they had done so in other places. Jefferson might not have been thrilled with slavery, but he still kept slaves. At that point in time, it was "the way of things".
Why did the South think it could win? First, it didn't matter whether or not it could win. When people attack your home, you fight or you're a damned coward. The South fought until it was utterly overcome by an enemy many times its strength that had descended into barbarism. In this case, it was a matter of "might makes right". You also might ask why the Jews fought in the Warsaw ghetto or why the partisans in Czechoslovakia or France or Poland or Greece fought the Nazis even though they could not (by themselves) win; they fought because they had to! Tyrants must be resisted even without hope.
Finally, I am still waiting for you to address dear General Sherman. Until you do that, I fear that I must not give your other opinions much respect. But then, Sherman was not alone. Let's look at what happened when the South tried to send Union prisoners back North because the Confederacy could not succor them:
"My government instructs me to waive all formalities and what it considers some of the equities in this matter of exchange. I need not try to conceal from you that we cannot feed and provide for the prisoners in our hands. We cannot half feed or clothe them. You have closed our ports till we cannot get medical stores for them. You will not send us quinine and other needed medicines, even for their exclusive use. They are suffering greatly and the mortality is excessive. I tell you all this plainly, and still you refuse to exchange. What does your government demand? Name your own conditions and I will show you my authority to accept them. You are silent! Great God!, can it be that your people are monsters? If you will not exchange, I will give you your men for nothing. I will deliver ten thousand Union prisoners at Wilmington any day that you will receive them. I will deliver five thousand here on the same terms. Come and get them. If your government is so damnably dishonest to want them for nothing, you shall have them. You can at least feed them and we cannot. You can give us what you please in return for them."
Col. Ould of the Confederate States Army pleading with Gen. Mulford of the United States Army in vain. Lincoln had already shut off prisoner exchanges. This quote is from a book entitled Three Years with Grant by war correspondent Sylvanus Cadwallader and edited in 1955 by Benjamin Thomas. Cadwallader made a point of stating in the book that he had verified this quote with several sources. Thomas frequently corrected historical mistakes in Cadwallader’s writing but said nothing about this.
Now let's talk about "Yankee nobility", shall we? No, we can't because it is a contradiction in terms.
After Ft. Delaware, McCreary was sent to Morris Island, S.C. and was held with others as "human shields" in front of Union artillery emplacements that were shelling the city of Charleston. The Federals were mad that the Confederate government took the Union prisoners from the Georgia POW camps and put them with better conditions in the city of Charleston, which is where the yankees wanted to shell. In attempt to punish the Confederates for this act, Confederate prisoners of war were held as human shields. By an act of God, and the skill of Confederate gunners, no prisoners were hurt or killed by the incoming shells, the only casualties to shells were the Union soldier guards. These were not Union white soldiers but black soldiers of the famed 54th Mass., given this work as no white troops would want to serve under such conditions.
The Confederate casualities on the Island were not from shells but from shots fired by the guards at the prisoners, often with no justified reason. These Confederate POWs were given the title the "Immortal 600". After Morris Island, He was taken to Ft. Pulaski where many Confederates were intentionally starved to a point as close to death as possible. Although Col. McCreary was starved on Morris Island, he was for tunate to be one the last to get an exchange before conditions at Ft. Pulaski became extremely worse. Upon returning to Richmond, Virginia, McCreary testified before the Confederate Congress about the atrocities being committed upon Confederate soldiers i n the POW camps. During 1865, McCreary commanded a battalion under Gen. Breckinridge, composed of Kentuckians and South Carolinians in the Virginia theater.
