Galvanized Yankees is what they were called down South.
Most of the former CSA men went west to fight out there, I thought.
Those men did come home and after a few years most of the hard feelings were gone.
As far as yours being a bad person, remember that was probably a bitter divorce.
However, almost none of my family changed sides.
They were Confederates and lived and died that way and died they did in the Yankee prisons.
Only one crossed over and he had a wife and three little girls at home. His brother was
already killed at Shiloh and another was in prison when he did. He was also living in Union territory.
But I know for a fact that a former Union officer out of Illinois would sit by
my great grandfather, a former CSA soldier, at the First Baptist Church in England, Arkansas.
Neither one could hear and they sat on the front bench to hear the preacher.
My first cousin's ancestor was a Union soldier from Illinois who fought at Arkansas Post
and either never left, or else returned to the area when the war was over. The irony
is that her husband's ancestor was the same, a Union soldier from Illinois out of the same
unit. Those men were looking for an opportunity to get ahead and own land of their own.
Good luck in your search.