I'm glad you find it fascinating and engaging RossN! As you well know, that is an integral part of what I try to accomplish with any AAR. Since most of us here on the forums have some attachment or interest to history, in the most abstract and general sense, I sometimes feel at heightened obligation as someone who publishes and works fairly regularly in academia, to bring out some of the aspects of history that "fall through the cracks" so to speak. (I mean, we're already all familiar with political and military history of the ACW...no need to retread that ground with just a bunch of changing dates and battle names to fit with the game's version of the CW.)
The Civil War has begun, and the Confederates have won some impressive victories, as earlier updates explain, but I think you--and all other readers--can gauge what our primary focus will be on. Though, of course, we do have an important election to hold since the war fired in Spring of 1860!