All too often historians tell the story of the Civil War by tracing the tactical aspects of a given battle, recounting the pedigree of a particular leader, or chronicling the facts that represent the atomistic features of historiography. In approaching history in these ways writers overlook the most elemental building block of the human saga. That building block is people, and the stories of their lives. Without putting a human face on history its study becomes divorced not only from the reader but also from the very people who created the historical events being reviewed.