I think Kenneth raises an excellent point in his last post:

My point is simply this: If you wear a kilt with a Confederate uniform, you are in fact NOT displaying your heritage. It wasn't done by your (collective) ancestors or mine. Where does one draw the line? On which side of the line are the lederhosen of Germany and Austria? There were certainly plenty of Germans here and fighting on both sides of war.
Well said. Many Americans of German and Austrian heritage served in both World Wars, and in the case of the First World War, saw their heritage and traditions persecuted by "loyal" Americans at home that banned German language classes and changed sauerkraut into liberty cabbage.

This point reminded me of how some, such as the late Grady McWhiney attempted to claim Scottish & Irish heritage for only the South; his books such as "Cracker Culture" and "Attack & Die" seem to imply that there were no "Celtic" peoples fighting for the North, when in fact there were -- the Irish were second to the Germans in terms of Northern ethnic regiments, and the Scots, especially in Scotland, tended to favour the Northern cause as well. Some of my own Scottish and Ulster-Scottish ancestors settled in Iowa before the War, and loyally served their new home in non-ethnic Iowa regiments. They certainly carried their Burns with them, but they didn't see their service as a display of ethnicity per se.

That being said, I think others have raised some very valid points well in this discussion, especially Terry.

T.