My colleague Ryan Gallagher has much more on the news over on Future Tense (where he points out that the government may be winning that war, but it certainly hasn't won it yet). But after reading up on the covert encryption-breaking program known as "Bullrun" and its predecessor "Manassas," you might be left with the same question as several of us in the Slate newsroom: Why the heck did the NSA decide to name the covert programs after battles in the American Civil War?

Obviously, the only people who know the definitive answer to that question aren't talking. But thanks to our battalion of Civil War buffs on staff, we can at least make an educated guess.