Joshua Chamberlain is a personal favorite, and one that he particularly liked to talk about with his students under the banner of "so you think professors are all talk and no action". He also comes down in favor of Benjamin Butler, though he was capable of staying neutral on the subject when teaching because of the controversy in the South surrounding him.

As far as non-generals go, he read the hell out of William Henry Singleton's memoir at least once a year.

He was a favorite with most of his students, although his classes had a somewhat high turnover rate of white kids who didn't realize they were going to be taking Civil War History from an African-American professor until the first day of class.