THOMAS W. CUTRER earned his B.A. in history at the Louisiana State University in 1969 and, after three years' service as an intelligence officer in the United States Air Force, returned to LSU for a master's degree in English literature, which he completed in 1974. In 1980 he was awarded the Ph.D. in the American Civilization Program at the University of Texas. Doctor Cutrer then spent a decade in public history, first as curator of history at the University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures in San Antonio, and then as associate director of the University of Texas Center for Studies in Texas History and managing editor of the Handbook of Texas at the Texas State Historical Association. His scholarly work focuses on the cultural history of the American South and Nineteenth Century U.S. military history, especially the American Civil War.