Christian G. Samito, who earned a law degree from Harvard Law School and a doctorate in American history, is the editor of Commanding Boston s Irish Ninth: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Patrick R. Guiney, Ninth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and Fear Was Not in Him: The Civil War Letters of Major General Francis C. Barlow, U.S.A, and the author of Becoming American under Fire: Irish Americans, African Americans, and the Politics of Citizenship during the Civil War Era.