Confederates In The Attic: Dispatches From The Unfinished Civil War

Chapter 15 opens with Horwitz on a reenactors hike. Having begun barely being able to keep up with the “hardcores,” he is now “midway to Gettysburg with a live chicken slung over one shoulder” (379). Chapter 15 serves a summation of all that Horwitz has experienced to this point. He can no longer “glance at the calendar…without attaching dates from the 1860s” (380).

As his father has recently retired, he, too, has returned to his Civil War curiosities. Horwitz discovers that once, his own father’s “idea of fun on a midsummer afternoon was going to Bull Run” (381). The two embark on a mini-tour, where Horwitz finally makes the sudden and logical connection that his father, too, allowed for the Civil War to intrude into his life in many subtle ways, even if they never overtly spoke about it (382-83). All in all, Chapter 15 serves as a reflection, not just for Horwitz but for the entirety of what he has experienced. Almost too much to fully distill, Horwitz posits a series of questions and offers a series of observations based upon his time spent discovering the South and its Civil War heritage. Ironically, he is now no closer to understanding the magnitude of the War and its legacy than he was when he began his journey.