 And he and his comrades did not see war as something romantic. They saw it as tragic and cataclysmic, a lesson to be learned from. One of the reasons I love Orr's writing is because he puts on paper what I teach to my students all the time, that history is a powerful lesson. It is a great teacher. You need to have history that is usable to learn from. And he certainly thinks that the Civil War is something that people can learn from.