Charles F. Bryan, Jr., is director and CEO of the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond, Virginia. He holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Tennessee and has written on the Civil War in East Tennessee and the Peninsula Campaign. He served as assistant editor of the Papers of Andrew Jackson. He is vice-president of the American Association for State and Local History and is writing a book on historical organizations and fund raising.

Nelson D. Lankford is assistant director for publications and education at the VHS and also the Virginius Dabney editor of its quarterly journal, the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. He holds a Ph.D. in history from Indiana University. His previous books include An Irishman in Dixie (1988) and The Last American Aristocrat (1996). His account of the fall of the Confederate capital at the end of the Civil War, Richmond Burning, will appear in 2002.