HE MORE YOU READ about the past, the more vivid the people become, the taller the tales, the longer the legends. And while there is apt to be embellishment to what gets handed down (memory can't help but embroider), there are still the simple truths of people who lived those lives, survived as best they could, battled against obstacles from within and without ~ much the same as people do today. Everywhere around us are stories of struggle, courage and endurance that are yet to be written (or may never be). For me, history is one small way of recollecting the future: what potential is ahead, what hope lies in store.

Among the Art & Artifacts on this site you will find a collection of resources that have been inspirational and educational in contextualizing 19th century America, the American experience prior to, during, and following the Civil War, and the day-to-day struggles and joys of the people who built the country, whether paupers or princes.

But here, I wanted to proffer a nod to the Time-Life Civil War series which was my springboard into this world. Particularly the volume, The Assassination: Death of the President, which sparked my sense of wonder not so much at the mystery of the numerous conspiracy theories in the Lincoln assassination, but of the lives of the conspirators themselves: who were they as ordinary men? What were their destinies before the war put them on a collision course with infamy?

In 1989, the character of Charles Lewis Fletcher skulked into my life, inspired by a historical image of the defiant young Lewis Thornton Powell, would-be assassin of Secretary of State William Seward and John Wilkes Booth's strong man in the Lincoln assassination conspiracy.

Who might that young man have become if the Civil War hadn't turned him into a killing machine? How would he have lived his life if he hadn't gotten mixed up with Booth and executed at the age of 22? The character of Lewis Fletcher was my hypothetical answer to this unanswerable question.

Since then, over these years, I have watched with horror and fascination as my own Lewis has evolved from a belligerent boy of 16 entering the Confederate Army to spite his father, teetering on the precipice between hope for humanity and the dark side of despair, to a man defined by war and struggling to reinvent himself. Battles are hard on people physically, but the toll they take emotionally and spiritually often leave lingering wounds that defy healing.

Reconstruction explores not only the period in which the war has left its wrecks of humanity off, but all of the events leading up to and during one of America's most defining conflicts in history. It is, in part, one league on the journey of the healing that we as a nation still struggle for to this day. That said, it's part memory, part dream, part hope, part fear, and all of it reaching toward the supernatural something that binds the human race.

LENA CARRILLO (that's me!) is a writer making a living on hopes, prayers, and the consumption of vast quantities of crackers while pursuing the perfect winter, having transplanted myself from too-sunny Texas to not-cold-enough Minnesota. I am a lover of history who draws inspiration from old books, mouldering 19th century periodicals, antique ephemera (especially photographica), and the diaries and letters of people long dead (but not forgotten). I spend more money on books than on food and clothes put together (and I'm not sorry about it at all). Most of my time and energy goes toward writing and trying to learn how to draw. I also enjoy collecting advanced degrees (MFA, MLIS) which seem to bring me no closer to being reasonably employed than ever before. In my spare time, I works at a university library ~ a job that almost pays my bills, but more importantly provides me with optimal access to yet more mouldering 19th century resources. If you really want to read more of my silly bibbling, you are welcome to check out my LiveJournal Blog. You can also contact me at: amdg.ihs@gmail.com (and I welcome your feedback!).