View from Va.: N.C.’s ‘point of perverse pride’

“…North Carolina’s claim to the highest number of Confederate dead has at times been a point of perverse pride for those whose hearts still cradle an ember or two from a bygone flame. That in itself seems slightly odd, at least from the perspective of George C. Scott’s famous observation in ‘Patton’: No one ever won a war by dying for his country — he won it by making the other poor dumb [soldier] die for his. Good theory. It doesn’t always work in practice, however.

“Southerners may not remember, because Northerners do not dwell on the fact, but Union casualties far outnumbered Confederate casualties — and New York lost more men than any other state.”

— Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial (April 15, 2011)