The Lions of Antietam and Verdun

In June 2023 I had the privilege of a historian’s lifetime to be included on a trip to view and explore the campaigns of the First World War in Belgium and France. So often, as our tour bus rolled along the lines of the Allied and Central powers, my mind wandered to the war I have spent much of my life studying. Civil War historians can be insufferable this way and I am grateful to my companions on this excursion for their forbearance as I commented on the similarities and differences between the two great conflicts; which were, though we might not often think of it this way today, separated by a mere half century of human history.