William J. Cooper, Jr., is the author of Jefferson Davis and the Civil War Era; Jefferson Davis, American, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and numerous other books. A Boyd Professor of History at Louisiana State University, he lives in Baton Rouge.John M. McCardell, Jr., is the author of The Idea of a Southern Nation and coeditor of A Master's Due: Essays in Honor of David Herbert Donald. He is President Emeritus and College Professor at Middlebury College in Vermont.