Hey, I could be wrong. I think I remember being wrong, once! I was thinking of Colonel Allensworth (actually he never rose above the rank of "private" in the Union Army) but I rechecked the story and the community he established was more or less on his own dime. But I do know that Union soldiers, including some black Union soldiers, were paid with land, much of it in the west. And, unfortunately, much of it was Indian land. As I mentioned above, I am only drawing on memory and you all probably know how that goes, and goes, and goes!

I remeber a description of a Confederate charge against a Union line. The writer described the soldiers as looking like scarecrows and ghosts. Half of them didn't hold a weapon. Some had little in the way of clothing. They were gaunt and hollow-eyed and they all knew they were about to die. It broke the writer's heart to do what he did, to keep pulling the trigger and reloading and at the same time he hated them for not surrendering when every evidence shouted "Surrender!". It literally broke the South when Lee did surrender.

You can say what you want about the imperfectness of all concerned but you can't naysay the bravery and dedication of those who fought.