Continuity mistake: When Gen. Blair is telling Colonel Lee that he has been authorized by President Lincoln to give him the rank of general, Blair is seen sitting in his chair leaning forward to talk but when the camera angle changes he is now seen leaning back and to his right. (00:05:40)
Continuity mistake: During the changing of flags at the school, Major Jackson is being told that his country and the country they live in are one. The gentleman telling him this clasps his hands together to show unity. When he clasps his hands together he holds them at about face level but when the camera angle changes his hands are now seen below his chest. (00:11:27)
Continuity mistake: When Lee and Longstreet are surveying the map of the area, the position of the compass changes without anyone touching it. (01:02:00)
Continuity mistake: When the Confederate soldier is telling the other soldiers about what will happen when he dies, when he says 'give them to my captain to give to my daddy' a soldier with a light coloured uniform marches by. In the next wide shot, it's a soldier with a dark coloured uniform. (01:05:45)
Continuity mistake: When Jackson is in bed with his wife after the first battle, she leans up and starts to stroke his face with her fingers as she tells him that they serve a loving god. The camera angle changes and her hands are back on the sides of his face. (01:05:46)
Continuity mistake: When Jackson is in bed with Anna, she is telling him that their love is proof that god is a loving god. As she tells him this her right hand is on the left side of his face. The camera angle changes and her hand is now resting on his shoulder. (01:05:52)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the three Confederate soldiers are about to be executed for desertion, a blindfold is placed around the deserter on the right. It is a narrow strip of cloth covering his eyes. The camera pans to the firing squad and then back to the three men. The blindfold on the deserter on the right, is now much wider.
Continuity mistake: When Samuel Zook's brigade crosses the pontoon bridge at Fredericksburg, the title card refers to him as 'Colonel Zook'. However, some time later General Hancock addresses him as 'General Zook' and his shoulder straps indicate that he is in fact a brigadier-general, not a colonel.
Answer: Pride, honor, and respect were some of the characteristics of a Southerner's perspective during the Civil War, and did not change through the war. At this point of the war, however, the Confederates knew they were now on the defensive, no longer fighting for either slavery or states' rights, but the survival of their land, farms, and homes against foreign invaders (Union troops) who were using "scorched earth" tactics to break the South's will and ability to fight. That alone, kept them fighting even though victory was not going to happen for them.
What are scorched earth tactics?
Destruction of farms, crops, livestock. Also destroy every town that the Union troops arrive at.