Military-history buffs are noted for being able to debate and discuss the Civil War for hours on end.

Well, John Nischwitz has 1,200 questions for them.

Nischwitz will be at the Chatillon-DeMenil House on Friday to discuss and sign copies of his new book, "Confessions of a Civil War Trivia Junkie."

A Ranger-qualified West Point graduate who served with the 82nd Airborne Division in Vietnam, Nischwitz retired as a lieutenant colonel. He has visited every major Civil War battlefield, taught military history at the secondary and college levels and reviews books for the Missouri Historical Society.

"Confessions of a Civil War Trivia Junkie," released in September, is a compilation of the many quizzes he has put together over the past 14 years for meetings of the St. Louis Civil War Roundtable.

"I put the questions on the tables before the meetings, and then we go through the answers before the main speaker goes on," said Nischwitz, who lives in south St. Louis County. "So I decided to put them all together in this book, along with about 150 photos from the National Archives."

Like so many historians, Nischwitz sees the War Between the States as the most important armed conflict in our nation's history.

"Simply put, it was the necessary act that had to happen to complete the ideas of our Founding Fathers as to what type of country this would be," he said. "It was the issue that had to be resolved."

Nischwitz believes that if the Confederate states had been able to form their own nation, other areas of the country likely would have attempted to leave the Union.

"Michigan, Illinois, Ohio and Indiana, and their vast natural resources, had fundamental philosophical differences with the East Coast states," he said. "It's not out of the question that they may have seceded as well."

Another factor for the rampant interest in the conflict is how it split families and affections among fellow Americans.

"We all know that families were cleft right down the middle by these battles," Nischwitz said. "But how many people know that one of the brothers of Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's wife, was a Confederate who was killed at Chickamagua? And his widow lived in the White House for a while.

"So not only were houses across the country home to this sort of painful division, the White House itself was home to it."

Along with the scores of questions, Nischwitz also supplies lists — lots of lists — about Civil War facts, such as alternate names for battles; famous bridges, roads and gaps; maritime vessels; notable houses; forts and prisoner of war camps.

Nischwitz stressed the fact that Friday's event is not a trivia contest, though he said discussion of the questions will be the main order of the day.

"This isn't the kind of book that I could use to do a reading," he said.

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John Nischwitz

When • 7 p.m. Friday

Where • Chatillon-DeMenil House, 3352 DeMenil Place

How much • The signing is free. Copies of "Confessions of a Civil War Trivia Junkie" will be available for purchase. Tours of the mansion's first floor will be given.

More info • 314-771-5828; demenil.org

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'Confessions of a Civil War Trivia Junkie'

By John Nischwitz

Monograph Publishing, 280 pages, $29.95