They learned that the southern army could fight just as well, if not better, than the northern army, which would make this battle very difficult
White supremacists carried medieval signs in Charlottesville because the miedeval signs are used by people in France and Britain to represent a time of racial purity in their country that never existed and never will exist. In general, white supremacists just want to make up fantasies of a time that never existed with the miedeval signs.