“You may forgive us but we won’t be forgiven. There is a rancor in our hearts which you little dream of. We hate you, sir.” (Said by a surrendering Rebel officer to Joshua Lawrence Chamberlin at Appomattox.)
In the 143+ years since Appomattox, their rancor and hate has long faded from memory. These brave men, so passionately committed to their different causes, now sleep together as brothers in the soil of this Great Nation which was formed out of that tragic conflict. R.I.P.
Actually it had faded within 25 years. The veterans of the Civil War met for reenactments at Gettysburg in 1888, 25 years after the battle, and again in (I believe) 1923. There is actually movie footage showing the old codgers rushing or doddering into battle again. What the movie doesn't show is that before and after this reenactment the veterans of both North and South were amiably coexisting in the town of Gettysburg--drinking together, playing cards, and (in some hardy cases) whoring.
To a great extent it was we women who kept a lot of the bitterness alive. My own kin who actually fought in the War had abandoned their hatreds within 25 years after the War ended, as my father abandoned his hatred of the Japanese shortly after World War II ended.
That was a beautiful and poetic statement you made, BTW, and I don't mean to minimize its grace with my observation.