Reenactors are those people whose hobby involves dressing in the manner of soldiers from a particular period of time in order to recreate battles from a famous war. Those individuals who choose to restage Civil War battles form the largest contingent of reenactors. They are part of a larger group of Civil War buffs who actively participate in genealogy research, discussion groups, and roundtables. The American Civil War divided the country in bitter warfare from 1861 to 1865 but its legacy has endured long since the fighting ceased. The war wrought extensive changes which shaped United States society and its inhabitants. Historian Shelby Foote, renowned for his participation in Ken Burns' popular PBS series The Civil War, observes that "any understanding of this nation has to be based, and I mean really based, on an understanding of the Civil War. I believe that firmly. It defined...