Response to Confederates

I found the piece from Confederates in the Attic extremely entertaining. Horwitz's way of describing his experience is phenomenal, specifically by discovering, bit by bit, what the Confederate organizations are about. At the beginning of the chapter, Horwitz first compares the preconceived notion of the Confederate members by James Conner, to the first experience Horwitz has with the members. Conner seems to be skeptical of the group, solely because he is black. However, to the surprise of Horwitz, and to the audience as well, the first encounter with the Confederate members of the UDC is without word of hardly any prejudice towards black or yankee folks. At once, the typical stereotype of those who take pride in their Confederate heritage is dismissed as the group explains how they are in the group only because they are proud of their Confederate history. My favorite part of the book was that specific moment, because for a few seconds, Horwitz allows the audience to see the Confederate group in a different light than normal. Then, in a brilliant move by Horwitz, he gradually unveils the hidden prejudices that the group had, in fact, possessed the whole entire time. Just the way that Horwitz decides to show the UDC in a different manner and then gradually paint it back into it's stereotypical pictures made the reading thrilling!