Jim --

In my opinion, some works of fiction may be more instructive than others. Shaara's "Killer Angels" and Frazier's "Cold Mountain" are two of these. Unlike "Gone With the Wind", many characters in these two books are real people and actually were involved in events described in these novels. My instructor for Civil War in graduate school, Dr. Harriet Amos Doss,

http://main.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=9519

used "Killer Angels" as required reading for her class. Based on earlier studies of an Alabama "home guard" unit in Shelby County, I found Frazier's depiction of North Carolina home guards to be rather accurate. Let me hasten to add that not all "home guards" tortured people or executed prisoners, but a few certainly did. It's best to understand that in most counties throughout the South, "home guards" engaged in their own private wars with deserters, men trying to stay out of the army and their civilian supporters. As Al Gore put it, there was "no controlling legal authority" (at least none close at hand), so men on both sides of the conflict used whatever means necessary to wage these local wars.

http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2004/summer/inman.html

Most people seem to believe that "home guards" were supposed to defend their community in event of a Federal raid or attack of some kind. That's the realm of fiction, and anything we can do here to dispell that notion would be worthwhile.

I too would like to know the source of the Robert E. Lee quote as it doesn't sound familiar.