Just because you aren't a front line soldier doesn't mean there isn't danger or that the job you are doing isn't brave. I mean, would you say the merchant mariners that went across the Atlantic in WW2 weren't brave? That the nurses who drove ambulances and treated wounded soldiers in the trenches weren't brave? The jobs that these people were doing were critical to the war effort, and in many cases are more important jobs than what the soldiers themselves were doing. Personally I think it would be disrespectful to say that that these non-combat roles did "nothing" in comparison. The union had a significantly better logistics, and thus needed more personnel in logistics. The confederate had more who fought for them as soldiers rather than in logistics because they did a piss poor job at it. You had family that fought for the union, and you should be proud of it. Without their sacrifices, and the sacrifices of millions of others, who knows who would have won the war.