With a BA in Politics and Economics from Oxford University, Laurie Woodruff retired from a career in public accounting in Canada and spent six months at Virginia Tech working with Professors James A. (Bud) Robertson and William C. (Jack) Davis. With their guidance, he designed, implemented, and currently manages the Essential Civil War Curriculum (www.essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com). Now a project of the Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech, the Essential Civil War Curriculum website contains a definitive list of more than 300 topics that every student of the Civil War should study, produced by today’s foremost Civil War historians. Laurie is a member of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War and has researched more than 125 of his family members who served in the Civil War. After reviewing so many of their pension files, he decided it was necessary to understand the pension system that produced them.