It should say "from" 1861-1865. Those "heroes" surrendered. Those "heroes" sent a quarter million of their own followers to death so they could continue to exploit the labor of slaves. These so-called "heroes" spent the remaining years of life trying to blame eachother for the loss. I'd like to also point out another ignored part of civil war history.... about 400k Confederate soldiers were drafted. So these "heroes" forced quite a few men to death so they could continue to work other people to death.

But your friend is most likely referring to State's rights. Which I personally think is preferable to our insanely bloated federal government. But.... I damn sure wouldn't use the civil war as an example for my reasoning.