Tony Horwitz

Tony Horwitz is the author of the book and a central figure throughout. He grew up in a Jewish family in Maryland, near Washington D.C., and developed a fascination with the Civil War as a child during the 1960s. His interest in the war was supported by his father, who read to him from a photographic history of the war a a child, and by his mother, who allowed him to paint the walls of his attic bedroom with a mural showing scenes from famous battles. After college, Horwitz became a journalist working mainly overseas. Upon returning to the United States, he moved to Virginia where his interest in the Civil War was rekindled after meeting a group of Confederate re-enactors led by a man named Rob Hodge.

For the next two years, Horwitz explored the fascination he and others had for the war and the...