William B. Feis grew up in central Nebraska and earned a BA (cum laude) in History, Political Science, and English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1986 and an MA in History from UN-L in 1989. After receiving a PhD in military history from The Ohio State University in 1997, he began teaching at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, IA, where he is currently a professor of history. The American Civil War remains the focus of his research and writing, having published Grant's Secret Service: The Intelligence War from Belmont to Appomattox (University of Nebraska Press, 2002)and numerous articles and essays on Civil War intelligence. Most recently, he was co-author with Allan R. Millett and Peter Maslowski on the third edition of For the Common Defense: A Military History of the United States from 1607 to 2012 (Free Press, 2012).