Excellent essay. Just think of the lot of them - Sherman the manic depressive killer and vandal, ravaging innocent civilians as if to make up for his endless failures at Vicksburg; Grant the besotted hollow man, shovelling his own troops again and again into the fiery furnace because after all, Mr. Lincoln would always approve; runty Phil Sheridan, how many Indians were slaughtered by the little monster because of his rage that his last name wasn't Stuart or Morgan or Forrest or Mosby; Secretary Seward, another power mad runt with all sorts of delusional notions about the proper extent of our borders, inter alia; - Edwin M. Stanton, a common thug whose crimes would make Felix Dzherzhinsky blush with envy; and of course, the proto fascist himself, who drenched the country in blood without warrant. An amazing crew, really, the absolute dregs in every sense.
On Hanson, it is a disappointment to see that on a subject in which we are well grounded, he has shown himself to be just another heavy left organ grinder with a monkey. Aside from a few of his web columns, I have read only two of his longer essays - one about an uncle who died on Iwo Jima. The point is, his credibility has been shot. He will still peddle his books, but not to anyone slightly familiar with the Recent Unpleasantness. Finally, I can't imagine why a fifth generation grape farmer in the San Joaquin Valley would be so vitriolic about the peculiar institution - he almost seems to be guilty about it himself. . . . .