The basis for Southern Revanchisme?

Mark Kleiman was a bit surprised (as was I) to learn that during the American Civil War roughly one-quarter of all Southern males of military age were killed. No combatant nation in WW I suffered a casualty rate that high. [*]

Mark speculates that that casualty rate might explain the revanchisme (desire for revenge) that has actuated so much of Southern white politics ever since. Since "States Rights" was a code word for "the south's peculiar institution" (slavery), then that casualty rate may also explain the special virulence of Southern racism. I know that as a white boy in East Texas during the 50's I was still subject to propaganda about the greatness of the South and the South's general military superiority during the "War of Northern Aggression." Like soldiers everywhere who left home and fought through such a devastating war, those who fought and lost had to believe that the war they fought as worth it.

It is reasonable to assume that the survivors when they got home and were again allowed to participate in politics after the Reconstruction would do their best under the changed circumstances of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to repress the freed slaves. The institutions of legal and social segregation mixed with KKK terrorism was a very effective program to conduct that repression for over two generations. It has now been another two generations since the Civil Rights Movement began effectively to remove those institutions, and the removal process is as yet incomplete.

Recognizing that the South had a 25% casualty rate among men of military age after the Civil War certainly offers at least a partial explanation for the laws, institutions and violence with which segregation of the freed slaves was implemented.

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[*] I think that I recall the German casualty rate during WW II was even higher. According to Answers.com Germany's total casualty rate was 10.77% of the population, of which 5.5 million were military. Back in the 60's I recall seeing a graph of the German population showing males and females in five year age increments. What shocked me and made it so memorable was that the population of males who would have been between the ages of 18 and 55 during the war almost literally weren't there.

But the occupation of Germany after WW II by the French, British and Americans was much better planned than was the Post Civil War Reconstruction, while the Cold War stared at the end of WW II and probably had more effect on German attitudes than the WW II casualty rate by itself did. also, The Germans did not fight WW II in order to exterminate the Jews. That was more of a side effect of the war and Nazi control of the nation. If someone more familiar with post-war Germany than I am could provide information, I would be very interested in it.

Answers.com also reports that 13.39% of the Soviet Union's population died in WW II, of which 10.7 million were military death. They don't call it "The Great War" for nothing.

Since my knowledge of post WW II Soviet/Russian attitudes is even less than my extremely weak knowledge of post WW II German attitudes, I won't even attempt to speculate on the effects of the casualty rate of the Great War.