M. A. Kleen

M. A. Kleen was born and raised in Illinois. He earned a Master of Arts in History from Eastern Illinois University and a Master of Science in Education from Western Illinois University. The American Civil War has long been a passion—whether visiting museums and battlefields, researching and writing, or helping preserve threatened landscapes as a member of the American Battlefield Trust. His photography has appeared in publications such as the North Carolina Literary Review and Harvard Magazine, and in Gabriel Neville’s book The Last Men Standing: The 8th Virginia Regiment in the American Revolution. His nonfiction has been published in Ohio Valley History, Historic Illinois, and the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. After a stint in the Army, including a combat tour in Iraq, he became a contractor in intelligence analysis and data science. He lives in northern Virginia with his family and two dogs and works as a federal program analyst. He is also the editor of Spirit61.info, a digital encyclopedia dedicated to preserving, documenting, and interpreting early Civil War Virginia.