And though we focus today on the divisions, there were plenty who grew to feel comradeship with any who participated in the battling over the years.

I once met a soldier who was just back from active duty in Iraq. I working a pub gig near the army base in Killeen TX and he'd been asking for and singing along heartily with lots of warrior songs. When he asked for "The Green Fields of France," I said "Isn't that an anti war song" and he said, "Yeah, but it's still about war!"

So I was struck by a comment from Shelby Foote in the Ken Burns series, when an old southern Civil War soldier said he felt a real kinship, a true brotherhood with ALL the soldiers who fought the war, blue and grey ... and looked forward to being reunited with them in the next world.

Here's the song I wrote from those words.