West Virginia in 1863

[Southeast US]

There is no doubt that the Confederacy existed. But it is also the case that the Union took the view that the secession was illegal since the Constitution does not provide any mechanism for a state to leave the union, only a way to join it. Since the Union won the war, it effectively won that argument.

Not really. It took till 1869 for the Supreme Court to make it official. Then again, it was after the war, of course, and I always wanted to check into the background of the justices. Seeing that it was not a unanimous vote, there is some concern of bias. Especially going against the side that won, making the war less worthy.

In a related thought, there was also other things going on where the Union did not want to press their luck, risking the chance of also making the war less worthy.