Private Stevens’ Discharge

From the blog's about page:

"I have no use for the Lost Cause. I grew up with it; I learned early on that Grant was a drunk, and Sherman was a monster. The pervasiveness of slavery, which tainted all, was rarely discussed. [...] I don’t think my late-20th-century family actually bought into this foolishness much, but felt obligated to pass it along, as it had been to them. But in my family, at least, it ends with me."

So thus, the Lost Cause odor you smell may just be proximity to the subject matter, not anything in the blog itself.

I don't know about the flavor of this blog but historical material has always been welcome on HN. The core value of HN is intellectual curiosity. As you'll see if you read the first line of the site charter, anything goes as long as it's interesting: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html