"Song of the Chattahoochee" was published in 1877, just twelve years after the end of the Civil War. As for Sidney Lanier, who contracted tuberculosis while being held prisoner by the Union Army, the effects of the war were felt throughout the rest of his life.

Most history books explain the Civil War in terms of the differing attitudes that the two sides had regarding the enslavement of black people. It is true that the Confederacy of the South wished to continue slavery and that the Union of the North wished to abolish it, but that is just one of the relevant differences that led the two sides to violent conflict. Many Northerners opposed slavery, but even more did not care about the rights of black people, or at least did not care enough to engage in a war over the issue. Slavery was just the most...