Whimsical history entertains well

One of the delights of history is that it brims with marvelous ironies. I have remarked before how well-acquainted and interrelated Civil War leaders were. Many had been West Point classmates, some had married into one another’s families or been groomsmen at each other’s weddings, and many had served together on frontier posts or in Mexico. In some cases, including Lincoln’s wife’s family, brothers and fathers wound up on opposing sides.