I can say, however, that I have been favorably impressed bythe tone you are maintaining. You seem to be editing for whatJefferson Davis used to call "the thinking people of thiscountry," and I think this is the way to fly.

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As an author, I can’t help turning first to your book reviews,and the next thing I read is your editorial. What got me intothe latter habit was a piece six months or so ago in which youpointed out the excesses of revisionists in bestowing sainthoodon Lincoln, Lee, Jackson, and I forget who else. I found thisparticularly encouraging because I was working on a book thatdeals with more than usual candor with Lincoln’s performance asa war manager.

As to other categories of articles my personal preference wouldbe profiles of neglected but highly admirable persons–Union Brig.Gen. Herman Haupt, for example–or universally (but possibly unfairly)condemned figures such as Henry Halleck or maybe Braxton Bragg,men who are not thought worthy of full-scale biographies, butwhose stories readers jaded by recycles of Lincoln, Lee, et. al,might relish.

You have undoubtedly been thinking about what the Internet andother computer-related advances may mean to persons interestedin the Civil War, so please pardon me for suggesting that someof your readers, at least, might appreciate an article now andthen, if not a column, on developments and trends. also, the daymay not be far off when you will be reviewing CD-ROM releasesas well as books.

This response may be too subjective to be useful and personalto the point of being boring, but it comes with thanks for yourachievements and my best wishes for your continued success.

Curt Anders
Garrison, NY

Dear Mr. Anders:
Letters such as yours obviously make our day,and as TheHistoryNet shows, we have indeed been thinking aboutthe Internet–more than thinking, as our Editorial Director, RogerVance, would surely say. As for your suggestions about possibletopics of interest, we have already done an Ordnance Departmentarticle on Herman Haupt and his bridge-builders, as well as afull-length feature on the snake-bitten Confederate general, BraxtonBragg. The editor shares your opinion that there are many less-well-knownindividuals whose stories we need to cover, even as we give appropriateattention to the Civil War giants such as Lee and Lincoln. Allplayed a role in the war that shaped–and still shapes–our nation.Many thanks for your kind and thoughtful words.

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