...1 Prelude to Two Wars We must remember that those who commit the crimes are, indeed, the criminals; that those who do vio lence are the violent ones; that those who do the killing are the murderers, not the authorities, who are required to subject those criminals, and face those murderers. Felipe...

... further study, especially as the voluminous scholarship on the Civil War, ambient culture, and wartime literature continues to grow. What follows is an effort to “walk chalk,” as Twain’s Aunt Rachel might say, from the war’s prelude to its aftermath. For the antebellum clash at homesteads like “The...