Research and Writing

J. D. has a post on his blog tonight responding to concerns about how we can turn out a quality book so soon after the publication of Plenty of Blame to Go Around. Some have expressed the concern that our retreat book might not be as good since it’s coming out only 18 months after the publication of POB.

J.D. addressed some of the issues, and I want to add to what he wrote.

First, and foremost, I have always been a prolific writer. I think that my track record speaks for itself along those lines. At the same time, I’ve also made it clear that I don’t particularly enjoy practicing law, and that my writing is my outlet and how I keep my sanity. Immersing myself in my writing is how I decompress from what is a very stressful and not particularly enjoyable job. The fact that I don’t have children makes it possible for me to spend most of my evenings writing when I’m in that mode. If I had kids, I can give you an ironclad guarantee that I would not be anywhere near as productive as I am. Finally, I have a short attention span, so when I get focused on something, I work it until it’s finished. Otherwise, there’s a real possibility that I may never go back to it. That’s how I manage to be as prolific a writer as I am.

At the same time, my work always seems to get good reviews, and a universal theme is the thoroughness of the research. There’s a reason for that: I am a very thorough researcher. Also, I constantly have more than one research project going at any given time. I first started researching the retreat from Gettysburg in 1992, when I began researching an article on John Buford that ultimately appeared in issue 11 of Gettysburg Magazine. I had my first tour of the retreat in 1994–a personal tour given to me by Ted Alexander. I’ve written about aspects of the retreat for years. I published an article on the fight at Monterey Pass in North and South magazine nearly 10 years ago. In short, I researched the retreat for more than 15 years. I have spent many hours on those fields and following the routes both with and without Ted Alexander, who is the dean of all things retreat. I know the terrain as a consequence. This is no Johnny-Come-Lately thing for me.

Here’s the history of this project. We had originally planned to do a volume on the retreat for Ironclad Publishing’s Discovering Civil War America Series. Consequently, four or five years ago, we started writing and eventually completed a 90,000 word manuscript. And then the manuscript just sat while it waited its turn in the production queue.

Once Ted Savas learned what we are capable of producing with POB and I approached him about publishing the retreat study, he jumped at the opportunity. I wasn’t happy with the 90,000 word manuscript, as I thought it didn’t have enough depth and didn’t cover things in the depth or level of detail that I wanted. However, within the parameters of the Discovering Civil War America Series, it had to be that way.

Entering into an agreement with Ted liberated the project. Ted pretty much gave us carte blanche to take the original 90,000 word manuscript and put the detail into it that it deserved. We had additional research to do (more on that in a moment), and then the new material had to be worked into the manuscript. We had about five months in which to get it all done.

Although I have made my vehement opposition to Google’s scanning of copyrighted works known plainly here, I likewise have made my support of Google’s making public domain works available on line well known. Using Google Book Search, Microsoft’s Live Book Search and the online collection at Archive.org made it possible for us to obtain a tremendous amount of primary source material in no time flat, as it was available right there at our collective fingertips. I literally printed out the pertinent pages of hundreds of books, so much so that I blew through a toner cartridge. This saved us months, and perhaps even a year of trying to track down the books to obtain the useful portions.

Once we finished that, it was a function of spending virtually every evening, two and three hours at a time, working diligently on incorporating the new material, such that when we got the final draft to Ted in December, the original 90,000 word manuscript had increased to a 135,000 word manuscript.

That’s how we were able to to produce what Ted Savas tells me will be a 550 page book in what might appear to be a very short period of time, but which really represents the better part of 15 years worth of work on my end. The fact that this book’s bibliography contains more than 800 separate references and that there are more than 1200 end notes to this book should put to rest any concerns about whether we were thorough in our research.

There’s an old cliche about working for years to become an overnight sensation. That description more or less applies to our efforts to put this book project together. I would not permit my name–or my hard-earned reputation–to be sullied by anything but something that I consider to be my best effort. I clearly think that this is the best work I’ve ever done, and I hope you will, too.

Continue reading

J. D. and I have been working up an idea of what we’ve already got and what we need to obtain in order to feel like we’ve gotten what there is to have on Early’s 1864 raid on Washington. Between us, we already have quite a bit of information. However, the easiest way to keep track of what we’ve got and what we need is to maintain a working bibliography of the sources we’ve either already got, or want to get. Our working bibliography is already 17 single-spaced pages long so far, and there’s plenty more to go.

We’ve been working our network enlisting help where we can with tracking things down. Old friend Dave Powell sent along two excellent accounts, one from a trooper of the 8th Illinois Cavalry, and one from the 149th Ohio Infantry, one of the 100 days’ units. I’ve gotten some excellent newspaper accounts from the Macon, Georgia paper. Scott Patchan’s been particularly helpful. His excellent Shenandoah Summer: The 1864 Valley Campaign begins just after the events that we cover, so Scott’s work not only complements what we’re aiming to do, it also means that there are a lot of interchangeable sources, and Scott has been very generous about sharing them with us. There are lots of others who have been just as willing to help.

My point in raising all of this is that it never ceases to amaze me how helpful folks in this little Civil War community of ours are, and how freely they give of themselves when asked. Sure, we could find this stuff ourselves, but it would mean that the project would take a lot longer to complete, and we might miss things we otherwise wouldn’t have known about. I’ve said this many times: some of the very best people that I have ever met are folks that I’ve met as a direct result of my work with the Civil War, and the generosity of this community never ceases to amaze me.

I try to return the favor whenever and wherever I can, and have several different things that I’m reviewing for people in an effort to return some of that good karma.

Continue reading

I’ve been spending a lot of time combing through old newspapers for material pertinent to our Monocacy, Fort Stevens, and Johnson-Gilmor Raid project. As I mentioned here the other day, I found a lot of good material at the Ohio Historical Society going through reels of microfilm.

Today, I spent a fair amount of this morning digging through on-line archives of Civil War-era newspapers, and I wanted to share those sites with you. There is a tremendous amount of material available for free, and anyone interested in doing this sort of research should be aware of what’s available.

First is the granddaddy of them all, the New York Times. Until last year, the Times charged for access to its archives. However, those archives are now available for free here. Every article back to 1851 is available for free here, in full text format, and fully searchable. Needless to say, there is quite literally a ton of great material available here.

Another very useful source is the Brooklyn Eagle. The Brooklyn Public Library has digitized every issue from 1841 through 1902, all of which are fully searchable and available for free here. The Eagle often contains very useful information, and I found a number of good articles there today.

Penn State University has digitized a number of Pennsylvania’s Civil War-era newspapers here. They include The Philadelphia Press, the Bellefonte Democratic Watchman, the Columbia Spy, the Franklin Repository of Chambersburg, the Erie Observer, the Gettysburg Compiler, the Huntingdon Globe, the Waynesboro Village Record, and the Wellsboro Agitator. I found a ton of really useful material in these papers today, none of which has ever been used in any other treatment of these events.

The Library of Congress has also begun a program to digitize American newspapers. These are less useful, though, because only those articles after 1900 are available, and only the newspapers from a handful of states are presently available. The Library of Congress intends to further expand the program, and then it will become a really useful tool.

NewspaperArchive.com is another very useful site, but it’s not one that I’ve used previously. It appears to be a pay-to-play site, so I’m going to have to determine whether it’s worth the expenditure. However, it has a very large collection of available obscure newspapers, and it looks very promising. I will have to spend some more time there, familiarizing myself with the online collection there before deciding whether to subscribe.

Continue reading