This sounds like a great swap--haven't done any block swaps yet, so will wet my feet with this one.
Another note in regards to CW fabrics--black dyes were not very prevalent in the cotton calicoes of this era.
From Barbara Blackman's Civil War Quilts blogspot:
Black and gray color our Civil War memories, but black cottons were not reliable until the 1880s and '90s. You may want to use black cotton prints to add a symbolic somber tone, but the black fabrics of the Civil War years were silk and wool.
Okay off to get started with the patterns and looking for fabrics!