Benjamin Franklin CoolingIII is a well-known Civil War and national security historian. He is presently professor of national security studies at the Eisenhower School of the National Defense University in Washington, DC. He is the author of Mr. Lincoln's Forts: A Guide to the Civil War Defenses of Washington (Scarecrow Press 2006) and The Day Lincoln Was Almost Shot: The Fort Stevens Story (Scarecrow Press 2013).