Brief thoughts on the Civil War

The 12th of April marked the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War.  Strange to think of the ways the country has and hasn't changed since then.  Back then it was the North that was full of Radical Republicans who were against slavery, and to be a Southerner was to be a Democrat and supporter of slavery. Slavery is now illegal, but still continues in a different guise.  Racism is generally frowned upon but still exists. One thing that sort of irks me is the fact that we reenact our own civil war, the war that claimed more American lives than any other war combined, the war in which brothers fought against each other and ran into each other on the battlefield, dressed in their different uniforms.  I find the history of the Civil War and the Reconstruction absolutely fascinating, but it doesn't stop me from feeling uncomfortable about what it hath wrought and its repercussions.