In August 1861, 150 years ago, the American Civil War was in only its fourth month.

The comic opera First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) had just been fought in July. In its aftermath, among the dead to be buried was the previously common illusion of a grand, splendid, glorious 90-day war. Forty-two months of carnage later, a certain northern general summed up the sober truth. War’s “glory is all moonshine,” he said. “War is Hell.” If only more had made that clear-eyed observation in 1861.

In August 2011, 150 years later, the cause, course and consequence of the war can still confound reason. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. War, any war, may be guided by logic, but at its core, it’s primal. Emotion can overwhelm cool judgment. Instinct can vex good sense. Which is why, so often, as the saying goes, “the first casualty of war is the truth.”

And what can be said of war in the abstract can surely be said about our “tribal” memories of the Civil War. We can yet get thrills and/or chills when we hear how Pickett charged, Sherman marched, Proclamations emancipated and our Great Great Granddaddy was killed at Shiloh (as mine was). But sometimes, those stories felt in the gut can trump the facts as revealed through scholarship.

Which is understandable, maybe unavoidable, but still a shame. The realities of the Civil War, as distilled from the work of the best of contemporary academic historians can and do enthrall, enrage, inspire, and appall, even amid the march of footnotes.

Shorn of myth, the results are still mythic. Lincoln is far more interesting (and, I’d assert, a greater man) when de-defied. Lee’s brilliant audacity on the battlefield is more impressive, not less, when we chip away the marble façade and see the conflicted man behind the persona.

And, beginning on Sept. 6, that effort at demystification will be the goal of the special interest class on the Civil War to be taught at Co-Lin.

In scope, we’ll try to cover the big picture. We will certainly chronicle the major campaigns and battles, ponder the crucial “what if” moments, and flesh out the characters of the leading politicians and generals. But we’ll also examine some less familiar aspects of the war, with maybe a revelation or two in store.

Just how crude was Civil War medicine? (Crude enough, but actually better than you might think.)

Just how squalid were the Confederate prisoner of war camps? (Squalid enough, but too often so both North and South.)

Just how crippled were the South’s armies by its industrial underdevelopment? (Remarkably little.)

Just how much can our own recent debates over civil liberties in wartime be informed by the Civil War experience? (Infinitely.)

Special focus though, will be placed on the large issues that define the war’s meaning. History has to be more than a mere chronicle of events — who did what, when and where.

If it has any value at all, it attempts to explain why and how. And so, we will start with a quick summation of why the southern states seceded, and why war resulted.

Having discussed origins, we will move on to outcomes. Once at war, why did the Confederacy lose, and was that loss inevitable? Along the way, however, how and why did a war that began, in Lincoln’s words, to save the Union and not to end slavery become a war of abolition?

And how did the slaves themselves advance this process, and in the end, help to emancipate themselves even as they helped to save the Union? Lastly, during these same years, how and why did the courtly war of 1861 become the destructive, embittering “hard war” of 1863-65?

On these and more topics, from Sept. 6 to Nov. 15, we’ll see what the historians have to say. There will be 11 classes, for a $55 fee. No tests or grades, though CEU credits are available.

We will meet from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesdays, in the Lecture Hall of the Tom Reed Academic Center.

To sign up, contact Beth Richard at Co-Lin (beth.richard@colin.edu, 601-446-1103).

Jim Wiggins is an instructor of history at Copiah-Lincoln Community College.