So one thing I have discovered in my research is that Watkins did not have a very high opinion of the south and southern people. He describes almost every southern town and southern person he encounters as either "dark", "dreary", or "sad". He comments on how the south is not as advanced in industry as the north, and how the people are all of a lesser standard. So he does not have many moral objections to the fact that he is killing Americans; he kind of already separated the north and the south anyway. He ends his last letter by saying "I wish old Jeff [Jefferson Davis] could get his just dues".
But he is certainly not one of the worst. One particularly enlightening story comes from a man from Tennessee the unit met. He tells of how back in Tennessee, once the war started, he would go out and pick fights with random people to see if they were southern sympathizers. He would then go home and get his gun and hide in the bushes. When the people walked by looking for him, he would jump out of the bushes and shoot them. He would rarely bury them and would usually leave them in the street to rot.
It was a different time.
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