The founders of American Heritage chose Bruce Catton to be the magazine's first editor in 1954. He had just won he Pulitzer Prize for History and the National Book Award for Nonfiction for his book A Stillness at Appomattox. Over the next two decades, Catton would write an astonishing 90 essays for our magazine, in addition to his work as the editor-in-chief. 

When David McCullough graduated from Yale University in 1955, his aunt bought him a copy of A Stillness at Appomattox . The gift changed his life.

“I had read very little about the Civil War, and nothing swept me into the human drama of the war as the Catton book did,” recalled McCullough, who, after working as an editor with Catton at American Heritage, went on to win two Pulitzer Prizes for his books on Harry Truman and John Adams.

“History, in his hands, was anything but dry and tedious with all the flavor squeezed out of it,” McCullough told me. “I was caught up in the enthralling, real drama about authentic flesh-and-blood people, and the pull was altogether as powerful as in a great novel.”

One of our favorite essays by Catton tells the story of the 50th reunion at Gettysburg -- a combined North-South commemoration of the battle. The U.S. government tracked down veterans across the country, and invited them to an encampment on the same grounds.

Not all the wounds left by the Civil War had healed entirely — civil wars cut deep — but at least the country had recognized itself as one nation, and 1913 seemed like a good time to make a public demonstration of the fact. 

You can read his essay here, preserved in our archives: https://www.americanheritage.com/day-civil-war-ended