Perhaps you are speaking about my grandfather, Irving Peter Pflaum. I don't know if he was the grandson of somebody in the Civil War, from my grandmother's (Melanie Pflaum) autobiography it seems that our family emigrated to the United States in the generation before my grandfather, Irving. I think his name was Maurice Pflaum and he emigrated to Chicago. That's about all I have, but my grandfather Irving was a journalist (not sure about the editor part and I think he worked for the Chicago Tribune) and worked in Chicago and then later in Cuba, PR, Spain, New Zealand and some other places.