Thank you, Steve. I was just now reading this thread ... and wondering, "Isn't anyone going to suggest the possibility of peaceful reunification???" And you did!

As to the bitterness mentioned earlier in this thread: I honestly do not believe that it came from losing the war anything like the greatest measure; it came, rather, from the harshness (dare I say idiocy?) of the acts against the former Confederate states post-war. Lee saw quite clearly that a true reunification would only happen if the North behaved toward the South in a different way than it did. If the "punishments" for "rebellion" had been far less severe, the "bitterness" and acrimonious attitudes would have been far less deep. Surely, for many years, it was a case of the North having won the war and lost the peace.

Regards on a very rainy Friday,
Penny