Curious Fact about Les Miserables

The other day I came across a curious fact about Les Miserables. Not only was it a sensation in its day when published in France, it was enormously successful in the English-speaking world when translated. None of this is news but what is, is that during the American Civil War, Confederate soldiers dourly referred to themselves as "Lee's Miserables", making a play on words of the French title with the Confederate commander's name, Robert E. Lee, especially after the tide of war had turned against the Confederacy from 1863 onward.