John R. Neff was an award-winning educator, associate professor of History, and director of the Center for Civil War Research at the University of Mississippi until his passing in 2020. He was the author of Honoring the Civil War Dead: Commemoration and the Problem of Reconciliation.

Amy Laurel Fluker is an associate professor at Youngstown State University in Ohio, where she holds the Reeder Endowment in U.S. History. She is the author of Commonwealth of Copromise: Civil War Commemoration in Missouri, among other publications.