This article is amazing. If you are just hopping to the comments, as we all often do, I urge you to read it.
This kind of long-form, high-effort journalism is largely dead these days and you owe it to yourself to enjoy this read.
Not only a look at the UDC, but a sideways indictment of the entire Southern culture of faux-friendliness and conflict avoidance, and how it reinforces Lost Cause, while also shedding light on the ingrained cultural reasons why people believe these crazy things.