LEN RIEDEL is the founder and executive director of the Blue and Gray Education Society. Riedel is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute. He earned his Master of Arts degree from Old Dominion University. His emphasis was in Policy and Strategy with a thesis on General Magruder and the defense of the Virginia Peninsula. Major Riedel retired from the United States Air Force in 1994. He has played a key role in three previous books with National Geographic and has planned and conducted more than 300 different Civil War battlefield tours in 20 years. He speaks easily without notes on a range of topics.