I have come to focus again on this war and its meaning. We southerners only want peace on the basis of independence. I am fighting in this war because of what I feel is morally right. If the North feels that they must abolish slavery to save the Union, and if the government cannot and will not protect our property, then we southerners should not be subdued to such a government. But, I do not understand that Northern Republican perspective anyway.
Slavery is morally right and the Emancipation Proclamation is monstrous, and heinous.
It insults God and man because God created inequality, and it declares equality. Anyway, we burned the foundries, the factories, the munition plants, and the supply depots, and then we evacuated on September 1. We had lost a city to the Union that was almost as important as our capital, Richmond. If we could not have it, then at least we did not want the Union to be able to benefit from its potential. We southerners had made this city what it was, we had developed it, and civilized it.