Drew Gilpin Faust talked about her book This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. During the war, approximately 620,000 soldiers lost their lives. In her book Professor Faust explores the impact of this enormous death toll, which would be proportionately equivalent to six million today. At this event she characterized her book as an exploration of the work that death required of Americans during the Civil War including efforts to identify, reclaim, preserve, and bury battlefield dead, the resulting rise of undertaking as a profession, the first widespread use of embalming, the gradual emergence of military graves registration procedures, the development of a federal system of national cemeteries for Union dead, and the creation of private cemeteries in the South that contributed to the cult of the Lost Cause. Following her prepared remarks Ms. Faust responded to questions from members of the audience. At the conclusion of the program Ms. Faust was presented with a copy of a letter that she had written to President Eisenhower at nine-years of age and copies of some Civil War documents.