As a country boy raised on Western flicks, old-time values and games of make-believe, the American Civil War always had an inherent attraction.
During the first half of the 1860s the underdog Southerners – much like South Africa’s Boers four decades years later – fought against impossible odds to maintain a romanticized way of life built on honour.
Was that the real reason those under the Stars and Bars defended the apparently indefensible for four long years? And how was it possible these out-gunned, out-resourced troops, rallied only by their Cause and the brilliant Robert E Lee, inflicted casualties far in excess of those they sustained?