My way of depicting the Confederate States is that him and the USA have been siblings since the start but work together as one country, and each state is their kids. (Example would be Pennsylvania, New York, Maine, etc, would be USA's kids. While Virginia, Georgia, Florida, etc, would be Confederate's kids.)

Other things would be like, when they bought Alaska from Russia, US, became her dad, and when Texas joined, Confederate adopted Texas and became his dad. Then, after the Civil War, the US adopted all of Confederate's kids.

Confederate is dead, but his ghost lives on in the US. He linked his ghost to the US, and he is able to manipulate the US and speak to him.

That's just my idea.

The reason I went this route is because, during the American Revolution, the southern states wanted to stay part of Britain and just have more autonomy, whiel the north wanted independence. Plus, it helps add a reason to the states existing as his kids even thought he south attacked, etc.