Tucked away in a peaceful room miles from Chapel Hill, Tom Buell has created the perfect spot to do what historians do best: contemplate the past. Here, surrounded by shelves of books—he calls them his friends—Buell spent five years researching and rethinking the Civil War. Last fall, Buell, writer-in-residence in the Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense, published the product of those reflections: his third book, The Warrior Generals: Combat Leadership in the Civil War (Crown, 1997). Now, sitting in his corduroy recliner, a cup of tea on the end table, Buell looks like the classic historian. But his view of the Civil War is anything but traditional. continue story |