Southerners are patriotic rebels, if that makes any sense at all. They have always and to this day still do, make up disproportionate part of the military. That flag that some refuse to stand for should be hated by Southerners since it is the flag of our conquerors, but we are the most likely to defend it while Yankees seem to dispise it now. Heck maybe we are just stupid. But the same people who might celebrate Confederate Memorial Day with a Stars and Bars, will be out on the Fourth blowing up stuff in front of the Stars and Stripes.
Anyway,as usual, you are right, it is doubtful many of the boys in grey owned slaves. Officers might have for sure but not the grunts. Slaves were extremely expensive to buy and keep. Irish day labor was cheaper. Yankee soldiers probably fought to free slaves but for the average southern soldier that was not the case. One Union officer, late in the war ask a wounded Confederate why he was still fighting, the answer was “cause you are here”.
Blacks should be careful with this modern move to destroy all evidence of the Confederacy. That war freed them. It there was no Confederacy, the next historical fact to be eliminated when it becomes politically useful is slavery itself- no Confederacy, no Civil War, no Civil war, no Slavery. I’ve hear some blacks voice concern over this. They are smart to do so. Over 600,000 died fighting that war, more than all our other wars combined. It should not be forgotten by anyone.