Chuck Logan and Iraq veterans

After watching the Ken Burns documentary about the War Between the States, I came up with an hypothesis about writings concerning wars. I have done only rudimentary research on this subject. Would welcome comments.
During and just after the war, authors tend to villify war. Is that the word I want? Mailer's *The Naked and the dead*. Tim Obrien's *If I Die in a combat zone*.
About twenty-five years later, authors begin to romanticize the War. That is when the combatants merge into their mid-life crisis.
For the first time, I have found a protagonist who is a veteran of the Gulf War. And off-stage a character has died in Iraq in this episode of the War. This is in Chuck Logan's *South of Shiloh*.
I found this novel a serious consideration of the ordeal of combat. His protagonist waxes philosophical as he observes a reinactment of a battle (skirmish?) of the War of Northern Aggression. The novel compares the Civil War and modern war. And the Battle of Shiloh was said to be the first modern battle.