"American youth in all sections should be taught to hold in perpetual remembrance all that was great and good on both sides; to comprehend the inherited convictions for which saintly women suffered and patriotic men died; to recognize the unparalleled carnage as proof of unrivalled courage; to appreciate the singular absence of personal animosity and the frequent manifestation between those brave antagonists of a good-fellowship such as had never before been witnessed between hostile armies."
Sgt.Major, you are close. But Gordon is referring to those convictions inherited from the founding of the United States until the WBTS; not since then. Example: The first Boring came from Ireland in the late 1600s. As the family grew some went north and west, and some south. As a result of divergent inherited cultures and convictions, there were about 50 Borings in the Union Army, and an equal number in the Confederate Army. These people came from one ancestor, yet fought on different sides. I have thought about this, as have you. In my 21st century mind, it is hard to grasp. I served the United States, in the Navy, and swore to protect and defend the Constitution.
As to what I would have done in those days, I have no way of knowing. General Lee, having served 30 years in the US Army, still felt a strong enough allegience to the state of Virginia as to make him unable to go against her. Gen. Wofford, the first Colonel of the 18th Ga., went to the secession convention opposed to it. But when the vote went against him, he raised a regiment and fought the war as part of the ANV.
Southerners to day feel a closeness to the land and family that is more prevelent than in other sections of the country. When I got out of the Navy, I came "home". I was born about 10 miles from where I live now. My family has been in Georgia since the early 1700s, and in Cobb County since the 1830s, when it was settled by white men, and the Cherokees forced off. Being part Cherokee, I'm certainly not proud of that, but it is history and we are stuck with it.
"(T)o appreciate the singular absence of personal animosity and the frequent manifestation between those brave antagonists of a good-fellowship such as had never before been witnessed between hostile armies."
Pickets on both sides shared news and traded coffee for tobacco. When the war was over, those who fought had no lasting animosity for each other. Reconstruction changed some of that. My great grandfather was a boy then, and he told me stories of throwing rocks at yankees. Yet we have the example of Fitzgerald, Ga., settled by veterans of both sides. When farmers in the Midwest sufered from drought in the 1870s and 80s, Confederate veterans invited them to move to Georgia and start over. A number did, and the town was born. The streets in one direction are named for Union Generals, and those in the other are named for Confederates. Check their web site:
Would that we could all get along that way. At least we can disagree like gentlemen and ladies, and discuss those very real inherited convictions. Stan