Introduction [excerpt] The Civil War is a subject which has held the American imagination captive ever since the conflict ended in 1865. From that point to this very day countless books and articles have been published, diaries and war records have been poured [sic] over, and countless more original sources sit in lofty academic facilities and archives across the country, waiting to be read and re-read for futher interpretation. Many subjects pertaining to that by-gone era have...