Confederates in the Attic

406 pages. Cover wornPropelled by his boyhood passion for the Civil War, Horwitz embarks on a search for places and people sti ll held in thrall by America's greatest conflict. The result is a n adventure into the soul of the unvanquished South, where the gh osts of the Lost Cause are resurrected through ritual and remembr ance. He joins hardcore reenactors; witnesses Klan rallies and ca lls for race war; finds that Andersonville Prison's commander, ex ecuted as a war criminal, is now exalted as a martyr and hero; an d takes a marathon trek from Antietam to Gettysburg to Appomattox in the company of an eccentric pilgrim. Written with Horwitz's s ignature blend of humor, history, and hard-nosed journalism, this book brings alive old battlefields and new ones--classrooms, cou rts, country bars--where the past and the present collide, often in explosive ways.--From publisher description.