(Commentary) One hundred and sixty years ago Wednesday, Major Sullivan Ballou of Rhode Island died of wounds sustained in the First Battle of Bull Run, Manassas, Virginia. Two weeks earlier he had written a very eloquent and heartfelt love letter to his wife, Sarah. The letter catapulted to national prominence when a segment of it was read in Ken Burns’ documentary, “The Civil War,” airing on PBS in 1990. Academics debate whether Ballou actually wrote the letter. Noting “tonal and linguistic discrepancies,” English Professor Stephen Cushman of the University of Virginia states that there is “n...