Presesquicentennial backlash?

Weary of endless repercussions from a 1969 hurricane, a Mississippi legislator complained,  “Camille, Camille, Camille…. Sometimes I wish it had never happened.”

No doubt the coming sesquicentennial celebration commemoration will provoke similar responses about the Civil War. But before anybody gets testy about the sesqui — uh-oh, too late — let’s ground ourselves with a look back at Allan Gurganus’s evocative “The Ramada Inn at Shiloh” (first published in Granta 35, Spring 1991). He had me at the Ramada’s promise of “instant off-ramp battlefield access.”