One thing I’ve never understood is how the people from the North and South formed a line, but were able to get on with their differences after the Civil War, or did they.
Westerns gloss it over, the man in the grey uniform always made a heroic contribution and everything was OK in the end, but probably in real terms, it wasn’t so.
I’m not an expert in such matters, but I bet that there is still ‘Trouble in them there hills’.

Nothing was resolved till the 1970s, when the economy down south got better. I mean, between the end of the conflict and the second world war, when the defense industry sprung up all over the south and mid-west time stood still in Dixie – (over) simplified. Also mass media and their unifying influence played a big role here.

There are a few westerns that deal with post-civil-war times, like the southern-gentleman-turned gunslinger Paladin series and the James & Younger themed “just cause” themed movies. From the 1920’s there is “The Birth of a Nation”, the whole KKK thing. And a lot of westerns have a story that starts something like “heros home in the south devastated by the war, now he goes west to ….. (fill in).