No apologies needed -- you didn't "offend" me in the sense that I think you mean, nor did you "touch a nerve".  As I attempted to explain in my last post: when it comes to men like Lee and Grant, you've got to look at the whole man -- and not just at one or two aspects of their personal character.  There's a lot to them.  You also have to consider those men in the historical context of their own times -- which is precisely the point where many modern-day commentators miss the boat entirely.  There's a present-day tendency to judge historic figures by today's standards: standards which are often informed by modes of thought & experience which would have been utterly alien to the people who were actually alive during that period of history.  By no means am I saying that's what you are doing: but I've seen many examples of the practice.

In any case: what I am intending here is nothing more than the beginning of an action-adventure fantasy story with a historic backdrop for a stage.  As others have already pointed out, mixing real history into a story is a very common motif in modern scifi: and it's a motif which I personally enjoy playing around with.  However, it's handy (and fun, IMO) to know a little background about actual events, and from differing points of view.   So thanks for the input!    But I'll add the thought that I am not planning on getting bogged down in a running debate about the real history of the Civil War -- the main thing that I'm doing here is taking a little stab at historical science fantasy......with all that the term "fantasy" entails.

Fantasy can be sheer time-off-from-the-daily-grind fun.  And that's the intent here.

Something To Do At 3:00AM