Further thoughts: Read John Gordon's memoirs about his wounds at Antietam. At the Bloody Lane he was hit five times, and refused to leave the field. The last hit him in the face, and he finally went down. He said except for the bullet hole in his kepi he would have drowned in his own blood! Luckily, his wife had accompanied him, and she nursed him back to health. There was another COnfederate officer named J. Gordon, who was killed later in the war. A Union officer who knew Gordon met him years later in New York, surprized that he was still alive! He thought John was the Gordon who died.

Gordon also has a good essay on the causes of the war. He likened slavery to a tree in the forest of reasons, but not the tallest. A good read. STan