Introduction In popular histories of the United States, the Civil War is represented as a classic triumph of good over evil: An altruistic, enlightened North, united in its commitment to a noble cause, defeats a self-indulgent, inhumane, oppressive Southern aristocracy to secure the consitutional guarantees of liberty and justice for all. In fact, however, geography did not create the consensus that reason, logic, emotion, threats, and promises had failed to achieve; many Northerners did ...