As Nelson lived until 1934, Winbush had a few years as a young boy to absorb his vivid first-person accounts of slavery and service as an enslaved person under his enslavers, ER and Sidney Oldham, while the brothers served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

Based on the memoir of a member of Company M, Charles Stephen Olin Rice, the Oldham sons brought along another slave named Auterick.

[6] As a Confederate slave, Louis was responsible for duties such as cooking breakfast, cleaning, brushing uniforms, taking care of horses, foraging for food, shaving, delivering messages or any other task the owner needed.

Winbush claims that Nelson was allowed to serve as a rifleman and later as chaplain to both blacks and whites; he had already memorized the King James Bible by heart.

In a 2007 Florida Today interview, Winbush stated that his grandfather served as a chaplain in 1862 after the Battle of Shiloh for 4 campaigns.

In contrast to the story that Winbush tells his grandfather was quoted in a June 6, 1929 Charlotte Observer article entitled, "Forrest's valet admits Lee and Jackson were good too".

"I looked a’ter dem houses when Cap’n Bedford wuzn’t ridin’ em an’ when he wasn’t too close to de fightin’.

[10] The story, which was reprinted in several newspapers, notes that a Confederate Tennessee regiment did not have a chaplain, but instead had services led by an "old negro" slave named "Uncle Lewis".

Their status was that of enslaved or marginally free laborers serving in capacities in a military setting analogous to their roles in civilian life.

- Jim Coski, American Civil War Museum[14]The CSA did not allow blacks to enlist and as a policy did not arm them.

Eligibility requirements included an inability to support oneself and proof they stayed in the war until the end.

[27] The same article notes that, Winbush's comments sound like they could be coming from "the mouth of any white son of the Confederate veterans".

Winbush has traveled widely, visiting various SCV camps and other organizations willing to listen and consider his views about the Civil War and his heritage.

For instance, unlike many other African Americans, he considers the Confederate flag part of Southern heritage and appropriate for public display.

He denies that President Lincoln freed the slaves, explaining that the Emancipation Proclamation affected only the Confederate states, which were no longer under his authority.

As a counterpoint to this view, trained historians note that Lincoln never acknowledged the South's right to secede from the Union and therefore the Emancipation Proclamation provided the framework to free enslaved people once the areas came under Northern control.

[31][32][33] In 1998, Winbush participated in making a video on Black Southern Heritage, directed by Edward Smith of American University, who is also an African-American SCV member.

[36] The NAACP and similar organizations have criticized Winbush for his support of what they believe are neo-Confederate causes; they think he misunderstands the history of the South.

In one such interview with the Tampa Bay Times, Winbush stated, "People ask why a black person would fight for the Confederacy.

To fail to obey, or show any signs of possible non-compliance, or even the slightest insinuation that they favored a Union victory, led to suffering from immediate punishment.