Civil War books and authors

On Friday, I posted about a debate that we’ve been having within the management group of Ironclad Publishing. It prompted an e-mail exchange with Drew Wagenhoffer, who correctly identified the campaign that I described but went out of my way not to describe. That e-mail exchange, in turn, pointed out the inherent conflict between Gettysburg scholarship and the rest of the Civil War.

It never ceases to amaze me how many Gettysburg books have been written, and how deeply the Gettysburg craze goes. There are, for instance, multiple (at least six that I can think of off the top of my head) books that address nothing but the impact of the battle on the civilians of Gettysburg, as if that particular town was the only one so effected throughout the course of the war. Mark Nesbitt seems tomake a living writing books about, and advancing, Gettysburg ghost lore, having published half a dozen books just on that particular topic alone. There is a magazine devoted completely to the Battle of Gettysburg that has so far published something like 36 issues that delves into minutae like no other magazine I’ve seen. The depths of Gettysburg have been plumbed so deeply, in fact, that we’re left with utter garbage like Carhart’s book as the only “new” insights into the battle. Given that Carhart’s book is fiction masquerading as truth, that’s a pretty pathetic statement indeed.

The percentage of Civil War devoted to the Battle of Gettysburg seems to run close to 50%. This means that there are only a relatively small percentage of books devoted to the other 10,000 or so battles and skirmishes that took place during the Civil War. This means that there are still plenty of fascinating actions that deserve a detailed treatment but have been completely overlooked by history for whatever reasons. There are, likewise, other large and extremely important battles that have not received the sort of detailed examination that they deserve. Chickamauga and Shiloh are two that come to mind immediately. Chickamauga, in particular, deserves a good microtactical examination, but it has not received one. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s that the battle is not perceived as being decisive. Perhaps it’s because Braxton Bragg is such a thoroughly dislikeable fellow. Perhaps it’s that William S. Rosecrans, the Federal commander disgraced himself and trashed an otherwise admirable career by fleeing the battlefield in the midst of battle. Perhaps it’s the perception that books on the Western Theater of the war will not sell. Perhaps, most of all, it’s that neither Robert E. Lee nor Stonewall Jackson nor Ulysses S. Grant were there. Whatever the reason, Chickamauga has been treated as a red-headed stepchild by many in the Civil War community, but it was one of the most tactically interesting and strategically significant actions of the Civil War.

Another example comes to mind. There was, perhaps, no more important or significant campaign of the war than the Petersburg Campaign. Filled with hard, intense fighting interspersed among long periods of seeming inactivity, it was the Petersburg Campaign that ultimately broke the back of the Confederacy and finally hastened the end of the Civil War in the Eastern Theater. It involved both Lee and Grant, and the armies that seem to spark the most interest, the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac. However, other than Noah Andre Trudeau’s book The Last Citadel, I am unaware of there being any other comprehensive study of the campaign. given that this campaign lasted eight months, I find that remarkable.

Personally, I’ve always been drawn to the obscure. The more obscure, the better. Things like Pickett’s Charge hold less than no interest to me. I couldn’t possibly care less about Pickett’s Charge, and if I never heard of it again, I wouldn’t be terribly disappointed. Although Gettysburg has traditionally been my first love, I’ve reached the point where I find the Battle of Chancellorsville more interesting. I’m much more interested in obscure actions such as the Wilson-Kautz Raid, or Sheridan’s Trevilian Raid, or Sterling Price’s 1864 Missouri Raid.

It seems to me that there ought to be a happy medium, and that there ought to be a way to level the playing field a bit and to ensure that some of these other actions also get the attention that they deserve. It’s long overdue, but I’m also not holding my breath. The book business is already hurting, and the odds of publishers taking chances on things that are worthy but which may not have the commercial appeal of a Gettysburg book instead of yet another ridiculous and fictional version of Lee’s “real” plan for the Battle of Gettysburg are, sadly, not good.

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Here’s the bottom line. Since Cleo had her stroke, I haven’t written a word on my book manuscript. Not one.

First was dealing with her and dealing with grieving. Then came little Aurora. And she is a handful. Like most nine-week-old puppies, she’s a fountain of energy. She knows two speeds: full bore and crash and burn. There is no middle ground. She goes and goes and goes until she hits the wall, and then it’s sound asleep. The problem is that, like most puppies, she’s incredibly curious, wanting to investigate everything and see what it is. So, she’s all over the place all the time, either exploring or wrestling with Nero. That, in and of itself, is not that bad.

What’s bad is that the overwhelming majority of nine-week-old puppies are not housebroken, and neither is Aurora. We’ve got her on the road to housebreaking by crate training her and by taking her out every half an hour or so and then praising her when she pees outside, but the fact is that she has at least one accident per day in the house. One of us has to watch her virtually every minute in the hope of fending off accidents. This morning, while I was in the shower and Susan was getting ready for work, Aurora peed a big one on the rug in our bedroom because Susan was getting dressed and took her eye off her for a moment. It happens that quickly. So, when I’m at home, I’m usually chasing after her.

There’s also the sleep deprivation factor, which cannot be underestimated. The rule of dog care in our house is that we alternate nights/mornings. That way, the load is shared equally. Last night was my night. Aurora got me up to go outside at 2, 4:50, and 6. Of course, I had to go outside with her, dressed in shorts, t-shirt, and slippers on a windy night that got down into the low 20’s. Needless to say that by the time I finally got her to pee, I was one seriously cold guy. Then, it’s back upstairs, put her back in her crate (for which she will whine and cry for a while), and try to go back to sleep. The second time was that she was awake, was lonely and bored, and wanted attention. She didn’t even have to go when I took her outside.

The net result is that I am terribly sleep deprived today. And I don’t see it getting any better for another month or so, until she’s a little older and a little bigger. That, however, means that not much productive will get done on my various writing projects between now and then…..

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When J. D. and I wrote our manuscript on Stuart’s Ride in the Gettysburg Campaign, we wanted the book to have a foreword written by a prominent historian. Experience shows that a good foreword can help sell books, and it can also lend credibility to the work. I’ve been fortunate enough to have the likes of Jeff Wert and Gordon Rhea write forewords for my work, which I have always really appreciated.

One well-known academic historian had originally agreed to do this for us, but circumstances prevented him from fulfilling the obligation. Unfortunately, he waited until the last moment to tell us. We have perhaps two weeks before it would be entirely too late, as we are in the process of reviewing page galleys and making final revisions as I write this. If the book is going to be out in mid-June, as we have planned, there is very little play available in the schedule or else we won’t be able to meet that date.

Fortunately, I know Mark Grimsley, who teaches history at Ohio State, and who maintains two different blogs that are linked to this blog. I approached Mark today, hat in hand, and asked him if he could help us out and get a foreword together for us in just two weeks, as that’s literally all the time that’s available for getting this done and for us to meet our publication deadline. It’s going to cost me lunch at a nice restaurant, and I will, of course, now be indebted to Mark. However, I definitely think it’s worth it, and I really appreciate Mark’s willingness to do this for us, especially on such short notice.

Mark is a guy with a great deal of credibility, and having his name appear on our book and having his words in it will only make what we hope is already a good book an even better one. Thanks, Mark.

In addition, while I was in Tennessee last week, I had a chance to peruse a rarely seen and rarely used source. Basil Duke, who was John Hunt Morgan’s chief lieutenant, was the editor of a Confederate veterans’ publication called The Southern Bivouac, which was very similar to the Southern Historical Society Papers. The Bivouac was, in fact, patterned on the SHSP. However, unlike the SHSP, the Bivouac was only published for six years. It’s very rare. I didn’t know that my friend Greg had a set of the Broadfoot reprints of the Bivouac until I got to his house; it’s a recent acquisition by him. So, after my talk the other night, I spent an hour or so, going through the six volumes one page at a time, looking for whatever might be of interest, but in particular, looking for stuff on Morgan’s 1863 Indiana and Ohio Raid (I found and copied half a dozen or so articles, none of which appear in any bibliography of the raid I’ve yet seen).

Imagine my surprise when I found an account of Stuart’s cavalry in the Gettysburg Campaign–including Stuart’s Ride–that I had never seen or even heard of previously. None of the prior published accounts of the raid mention this account, let alone use it. What’s more is, it’s GOOD. There’s some really good material in this thing. So, here we are, at the last moment, adding new and previously unused primary source material to the book. Again, we’re fortunate here. We’re lucky to have Ted Savas, who is not only understanding but also supportive, even though we’re adding work for him by making significant additions at the last possible moment–in this case, during the process of reviewing and correcting page galleys.

This process of researching and finding new materials seems never-ending. And, my experience shows that it is, in fact, never-ending. That’s what makes this so much fun.

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I have ranted here at length against Google’s plan to scan entire books and make them available on line for free. The Writers Guild and the national association of publishers have both sued to try to enjoin this program on the grounds that it constitutes copyright infringement, litigation that I have wholeheartedly endorsed. While Google remains unrepentant and wholly in favor of its program of massive copyright infringement, it seems to be trying to make an attempt to satisfy some of the concerns of the authors and publishers.

Google is now offering to permit publishers to sell e-books that would be fully downloadable from Google’s web site. Google claims that the publishers will be able to set their own prices, and that consumers will not be permitted to save a copy to their computer or to copy pages from the books. Former Congresswoman Pat Schroeder, the president of the Association of American Publishers, gave this plan faint praise: “I assume in this they would have to be asking the permission of the publisher, and we would say, that’s very good news,” she said. In other words, from her perspective the only saving grace here is that Google is at least asking permission under this program, unlike its other scheme. From my perspective, the fact that they’re asking permission is the ONLY saving grace about this program, and even then, it’s no saving grace at all if the authors don’t get paid royalties from it.

Supposedly, this program is intended to permit publishers to boost their book revenues, but I fail to see the logic of this. If I’m the consumer, and I can’t save a copy of the thing or print it out, what’s the point? Why would I spend my hard-earned money on something that I’m not even permitted to retain a copy of the work that I’ve paid for?

In my mind, there is only one acceptable solution to this problem. Offer links to Amazon.com, where the customer can buy the actual book, or sell them a real e-copy that they can download and keep but which also ensures that authors will be paid royalties to compensate them for the fruits of their labors.

I remain intransigent in my opposition to Google’s programs and remain equally unshaken in my support of the lawsuits filed by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers. Anyone who values books should be, too.

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Today, I was finally able to get back to work and get back to writing. After losing Cleo last week, and with having to entertain Nero so much, there wasn’t much of an opportunity to write. I also didn’t have it in me, and I didn’t have the wherewithal to do so. Susan and I went to the movies this afternoon, and when we got back, I felt energized.

I sat down tonight and got back to work. I am nearly finished with the tenth chapter of the Dahlgren bio, but it’s been nearly two weeks since the last time that I touched it. I put in a good 90 minutes on it tonight, filling holes and fleshing out some points. I have a few more things to plug in tomorrow night, and then it’s done. When it’s finished, it will be just a few days before Ully Dahlgren left his father’s house in Washington to help lead what became known as the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid. So, I have two more chapters of narrative of his life to go, a conclusion that sums up his life, and then an appendix that deals with the legitimacy of the so-called Dahlgren Papers found upon his body when he was killed, and then it is finished.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The question is: is it the end of the tunnel? Or is it the headlight of an onrushing freight train speeding through the tunnel at me? Time will tell. Stay tuned.

But, at least I’m back in the saddle.

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I got an e-mail from Ted Savas about five minutes ago indicating that the printer has fallen behind and that the estimated shipping date for my book has been shoved back from March 21 to April 6. While I certainly understand the delay, and am well aware that it is not Ted’s fault, it nevertheless doesn’t much please me.

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The published eulogy for Ulric Dahlgren has been a mixed blessing. On one hand, it’s been a treasure trove of useful information, much of which has found its way into my manuscript. On the other hand, it’s been one of the most excruciatingly frustrating sources I have ever used.

My issue with Major Morrison has been well-documented here. Thanks to help from all of you, I was actually able to solve that particular riddle. Last night, another especially frustrating one re-surfaced.

Here’s the latest tantalizing and frustrating tidbit from the Reverend Sunderland’s eulogy, which refers to a two month period that Ulric spent with his father in Charleston, beginning mid-November 1863 and ending January 22, 1864, after the amputation of Ulric’s right leg due to his combat wound. After returning to Washington, he had about three weeks before reporting for what became the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid, in which he was killed:

“During ths time, he composed an article detailing the operations before Charleston in a style at once so calm, so clear, so comprehensive, as to silence all cavil and dispel the groundless complaints of the ignorant and impatient. This article, which has been printed since his death [on March 4, 1864], sounds to us now like a voice from the mouth of the grave. It was published over the signature of ‘Truth,’ which was ever more to him, by far something more, than simply a nom de plume; it was the substance of his character, and the animating spirit of his whole life, and never more conspicuously did it shine forth than in this last complete vindication of the siege of Charleston–a paper freighted in every line with a candor, a majesty, and self-evidencing power which only belongs to the truth itself–and which, being at the same time a work of filial affection, as well as a patriotic and public defense of the national prowess, might well stand for the crowning work of all his intellectual efforts–for the last-written testimony of his hand, which alas! he was so soon to seal by the offering up of life.”

How’s that for a tantalizing tidbit? Since I first read the eulogy a couple of years ago, I’ve been trying to locate this article. Obviously, I would love to be able to at least quote this article in the book, and even include it in full in an appendix. However, many months of searching have been fruitless. My researcher and I have reviewed every Washington, DC newspaper between January and April 1864, as well as all of the Philadelphia papers and the three major New York papers (Times, Tribune, and Herald), and we cannot find any evidence of this article anywhere.

This eulogy has truly been a mixed blessing. Although it’s provided some really good material that has never been used by anyone else, it has also been an astounding exercise in frustration. I’m open to any and all suggestions as to where else to look to try to find this article.

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A couple of weeks ago, I posted about my frustration with being unable to identify a Major Morrison mentioned in the published eulogy of Ulric Dahlgren. I was frustrated because Major Morrison is featured in a terrific anecdote that I want to include in my Dahlgren biography, and without being able to do so, I didn’t believe that I could legitimately include the story. The inability to identify Morrison really frustrated me. When I did that, I did so hoping that one you might be able to help solve this terribly vexatious problem.

Fortunately, I was not disappointed. Several of you chimed in, including Lee White. Lee did a database search and identified one likely candidate: Maj. Charles J. Morrison of the 1st D.C. Infantry. Bryce Suderow, who assists with my research in Washington, D.C., was able to locate several of the annual circulars published by the Rittenhouse Academy in Washington, and sure, enough, the name of Charles J. Morrison appears in the 1856 circular, along with the name of one Ulric Dahlgren. The eulogy mentions a chance meeting between Dahlgren and Morrison on the road to Harpers Ferry, and the 1st D. C. Infantry was assigned to the defenses of Harpers Ferry. So, it appears that we have solved this particular mystery, although I have to admit that I did not expect to ever do so.

There’s just one problem. Maj. Charles J. Morrison resigned his commission in April 1863. The eulogy, given in late April 1864, makes it clear that both Ulric Dahlgren and Major Morrison were both dead by then. So, although I am about 90% certain that this Charles J. Morrison is my guy, I’ve ordered his service and pension files from the National Archives, and if the pension records confirm his death between April 1863 and the delivery of the eulogy, then there will be absolutely no question that this is my guy. As it stands, the evidence is strong enough that I would be willing to take this case to a jury and feel good about my chances of winning the case.

So, to my loyal readers, I owe you one. Thank you very much for taking the time to not only indulge my rantings, but to help me solve seemingly unsolveable mysteries, too.

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Dimitri Rotov astutely points out that I have two books being published by Savas-Beatie Publishing in a period of about ninety days. While that’s certainly a true statement, it was never intended to be that way. I thought I would take a moment and explain how it happened.

My own publishing company, Ironclad Publishing, was originally going to publish the Monroe’s Crossroads book. However, a little over a year ago, we, the owners of Ironclad, made a unanimous group business decision to publish only those books that are a part of our The Discovering Civil War America Series for the time being. Because the Monroe’s Crossroads battlefield is stuck in the middle of the drop zones at Fort Bragg, it definitely does not lend itself well to the history/tourguide format of The Discovering Civil War America Series, so I volunteered to withdraw it from consideration, and it fell out of the publishing queue. I approached old pal Ted Savas about it, since Ted has had a lot of success with Carolinas Campaign stuff, and he readily agreed to take it on.

The book was originally supposed to be published last October, but when Ted got into laying it out, he determined that the series of nearly 30 maps for it were unacceptable. They all had to be re-done. When the cartographer had health issues, the whole damned thing got thrown off track, and what should have taken a few weeks ended up taking nearly three months, and perhaps even a little longer (I’ve lost track). Ted then scheduled it for the end of January, and we missed that date also as a result of the cartographer’s health issues. So, what this means is that instead of an October 2005 release date, we’re now looking at March 21, 2006 (which cannot come soon enough).

In the interim, JD Petruzzi and I were plugging away at our book on Stuart’s Ride during the Gettysburg Campaign, and it was rapidly coming to its conclusion. It was originally intended for inclusion in The Discovering Civil War America Series, and was originally planned as a volume in the series. However, the farther we got into the project, the more aware we became that in order to do this the way we wanted to, it needed to address the controversy over the ride, too. Once we got into that, we realized it needed to be a hardcover book, and that took it off the radar screen for Ironclad for the reasons stated above. Hence, we took it to Ted, and he grabbed it up, too. We decided to push to get it out in time for the anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, so that meant a short time frame in which to edit it and lay it out, and we are on track to meet the projected release date early, due to an event in Westminster, Maryland the third weekend in June (we have a detailed treatment of Corbit’s Charge at Westminster on June 29, 1863 in the book, and the organizers of the annual re-enactment have invited us for a booksigning that weekend).

There was supposed to be a nine-month gap between the two books. Obviously, that’s no longer going to be the case. It is an interesting scenario, and we will have to see how it plays out.

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This morning, legendary martial arts star Chuck Norris was on the morning radio show that I listen to on a daily basis. Norris was promoting his new novel, The Justice Riders, set against the backdrop of the Civil War.

Here’s the description of the book from Amazon.com: “The Justice Riders offers action-packed historical fiction from America’s favorite action hero Chuck Norris. Book one in the series takes place as the Civil War ends and the Old West begins. General William T. Sherman commissions Ezra Justice to form a secret band of cavaliers who will help end the war between North and South, and Justice complies with a pro-Union posse of diverse multinationals second to none in their fighting abilities. From dusty canyon shootouts against Confederates to the horrors faced aboard the doomed Sultana steamship, these dynamic men shine as good-hearted heroes who need each other just as much as so many others need them.”

From what Norris was saying on the radio interview, the protagonist is an abolitionist Southerner whose childhood best friend was a slave. He gets this commission from Sherman, and he and the now-freed slave form a band of secret scouts that includes an Englishman who’s a member of Her Majesty’s Coldstream Guards (Lt. Col. Sir Arthur Fremantle, I wonder?), an Irish immigrant, and twin brothers of gypsy descent.

Let’s see: we’re politically correct, that’s for sure. Never mind that there is absolutely no connection with reality to be found here. The story is preposterous. These guys are all martial arts experts, too. Again, never mind that nobody had ever heard of Tang Su Do (the Korean martial art studied and taught by Norris) in the 1860’s. Never mind, also, that the only one of these guys with any military training is the Englishman. Apparently, the six of them go out and win the war. Give me a break. The only good thing about this whole thing is that Norris said that the proceeds from the book would go to his foundation to teach at-risk children the martial arts, something that I definitely can support.

I wonder who persuaded Chuck Norris that he was a writer. Now, I understand that this is entertainment, but I get worried that people who read this sort of pap will actually believe that it’s the truth or that this has some credibility. Why is it that just because someone is a celebrity, they suddenly think that they’re authors (see that airheaded bimbo Paris Hilton, if you need an example of what I mean here)? This garbage gets published and sells, but legitimate folks who spend large portions of their lives trying to get it right have to struggle to get published at all. What’s wrong with this picture?

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