Americans, as of 2011, the year of the Civil War’s 150th anniversary, continue to revere the boys in blue and gray. They continue to be astonished by the sacrifices their ancestors made and marvel at the hardships they endured. Many Americans of our present time say that the war is long over and the issues it raised are resolved, but they wish to experience—sometimes vicariously and sometimes up-front and personal—the struggles of their great-great-great-grandparents.

Whether the other boys in blue—those whose skins were of a different color—will ever get the full credit for what they accomplished is uncertain. Whether the girls of the Union and Confederacy will ever be fully appreciated is not clear. And whether Americans as a whole will ever fully comprehend both the triumph and the tragedy of the Civil War remains one of the great questions of our time.