Oh man, I cannot disagree with you more. I don't have words to adequately express my disagreement with your opinion, but I'll try.
I am a huge Civil War buff, and loved "Gettysburg", which this was supposed to be the prequel to. I was so anticipating G&G, but was totally disapointed by it. G&G was dreck. It glorified the Confederate cause to the point of ridiculousness. Even a movie like "Glory", which was perhaps a bit over the top on the other end of the spectrum, showed some weaknesses in it's characters. G&G was practically a modern Version of "Birth of a Nation".
What could have been a fascinating study of the motivations leading up to the war ended up coming off as some kind of propoganda film. It was almost like the makers wanted the audience to come away thinking the wrong side won the war. yeech.
Regardless of my personal opinion about the message though, I saw nothing in the film worthy of oscar consideration, except perhaps some of teh cinimatography. And that had some stiff competition this year. There were some really stunning visual movies this year. More deserving then G&G.