History Does Not Usually Make

Men See Things Late, And It May Be That At Times An Evil Fate Drives Them On.

Like Most Rebel Soldiers, Sam Watkins Owned No Slaves.

The 1860 Election Became A Referendum On The Southern Way Of Life.

The Civil War Was Fought In 10,000 Places, From Valverde, New Mexico, And Tullahoma, Tennessee, To St. Albans, Vermont, And Fernandina On The Florida Coast. More Than 3 Million Americans Fought In It, And Over 600,000 Men, 2 Percent Of The Population, Died In It.

It Began With One Act Of Madness, And It Ended With Another. John Brown Heard History's Clock Strike In The Night And Tried To Hurry Dawn Along With Gunfire; Now John Wilkes Booth Heard The Clock Strike, And He Tried With Gunfire To Restore The Darkness. Each Man Stood Outside The Human Community, Directed By Voices The Sane Do Not Hear, And Each Kept History From Going Logically... The Line From Harper's Ferry To Ford's Theater Is A Red Thread Binding The Immense Disorder Of The Civil War Into An Irrational Sort Of Coherence.