But something happened to Wills along the way. Perhaps he discovered that publishers are willing to pay better for more mainstream views. We say this with charity, because Wills has to know that much of what he's been writing in recent years is simply not true. A recent column he wrote for Universal Press Syndicate is a case in point. These are not the casual blatherings of an ignoramus.
Wills knows better.
He knows that General Lee was not a slave owner and that he abhorred slavery. He knows that most of the soldiers who fought for the South had no stake in slavery. He knows but does not care enough to write the truth. But that's not even the worst of it. No one was hung merely for opposing slavery, else our ancestors would have hung General Lee.