Civil War books and authors

There are times when people amaze me. I can think of a number of instances when I have published something, and then somebody turns up and presents me with something pertinent that makes me say, “Damn! Where was this when I REALLY needed it?” Two good examples come to mind. One was a few months after the publication of my first book, someone gave me a letter by Williams Wells that is the only known account of Farnsworth’s Charge written by Wells himself. I wish that I could have had the letter when I wrote the book, as it definitely would have changed my interpretation of things. Likewise, a couple of weeks after my book on the Battle of Trevilian Station was published, I spoke to the Greater Pittsburgh Civil War Roundtable. A fellow came up to me and handed me a copy of his ancestor’s letter about the battle, which was a terrific letter. Again, the thought that went through my mind was, “Where were you when I needed you?”

Today, the fates smiled upon me. This morning, I got a phone call from a woman who is working on editing the letters of a trooper of the 6th Michigan Cavalry. Knowing of my work on the regiment, she called to see if I would be willing to read her work and comment upon it. I said sure, and she e-mailed me the manuscript. When I went to see what was there on the Gettysburg Campaign, sure enough, there was some REALLY good material on the June 30, 1863 Battle of Hanover. As I think I have mentioned here before, J. D. Petruzzi and I have written a book on Jeb Stuart’s controversial ride in the Gettysburg Campaign that includes the most detailed treatment of the Battle of Hanover yet written. The book, which is scheduled for release at the end of June, is in final preparation as I write this. Fortunately, Ted Savas understands, and gave us permission to hastily plug this new material into the manuscript, which we’re doing tonight. This new material, previously unknown, as it’s been in private hands, allows us to put additional meat on a portion of the discussion that was a bit thin due to lack of source material. We’re very fortunate that the timing worked out the way it did, and we’re even more fortunate that Ted is understanding and willing to be flexible, as it’s in his interests, as the publisher, to bring out the best possible book, just as doing so is also in our best interest.

It’s nice that this material surfaced when it did; another couple of days, and it would have been too late.

Continue reading

Gettysburg Magazine was Bob Younger’s baby. He started it, and he made the rules. Bob believed that the honor of being published in his magazine should be reward enough; if you wanted to be paid you had to ask for it. Those checks would come, but I always got the sense I was imposing on him to even ask. However, I have always insisted on being paid simply because of the principle of the thing.

One of Bob’s primary rules was no advertising. If you look at an issue of the magazine, you will find nary a single advertisement. This meant that either (a) the issue had to be paid for in full by subscription and bookstore sales or (b) it lost money regularly. Mix in Bob’s irascible nature and the fact that there was no national distributor, and it’s no surprise that this magazine was never a moneymaker for Morningside. Bob once told me that he and his wife Mary regularly had to subsidize the thing.

Also, Bob alienated enough of his authors that people stopped writing for him. I certainly did. When he decided that I was the enemy because we couldn’t get a bank to finance the deal, that was the end of my efforts to write for him, even though I have had lots of ideas of things that would have made for good articles for the magazine. I am far from alone in this. Consequently, in the past several years, the overall quality of the articles that have been published in the magazine has dropped significantly. For one good example, one of the licensed battlefield guides has propounded a bizarre theory that because the monument to the 5th New York Cavalry was moved, the rest of the monuments to Farnsworth’s brigade also were going to be moved. This person, in fact, contended that the veterans had been PROMISED that their monuments would be moved. The problem with this is that it was entirely and completely fabricated. There is no footnote for this proposition; there can’t be one–the records of the Gettysburg Battlefield Monument Association do not reflect any such thing. Yet, this nonsense crept through and was published.

Now, I’m all for theories that push the envelope. However, my support for and tolerance of these theories ends when they depend on material that is completely and totally fabricated. Had someone bothered to read this festering pile of garbage and hold it to the sorts of standards that marked the early years of the magazine, it never would have been published and put out there to intentionally mislead the public, as the author has set out to do. There is no quality control or consistency, and I have heard this complaint many, many times from many people.

This magazine has offered a great deal, and was once great. It can be great again. While Bob Younger’s passing was a tragedy, it nevertheless offers an opportunity to rejuvenate the magazine and make it great again now that it’s no longer under his thumb. With him gone, I would be willing to write for it again. Let’s hope that whoever is now in charge recognizes this opportunity and seizes it and does something good with it. Time will tell.

Continue reading

Mark Grimsley has an interesting post on his blog today about writing. Like me, Mark has been writing in some form or another for nearly his entire life. Like me, it’s something that he struggles with, constantly trying to improve his skills. In his post, Mark mentions a book titled Professors as Writers, which is intended to help academics improve their writing skills. What makes this pertinent to me is that the book seems to provide a recipe for making the most effective and most productive use of small blocks of time.

Mark’s days are filled with teaching, grading papers, meeting/counseling students and advisees, tending to his bureaucratic/administrative duties at the university, and shoehorning in time to do research. Consequently, he finds himself with only small blocks of time for writing.

My days are not much different. My days are spent meeting with clients, going to court, doing depositions, client development, administrative duties, tending to Ironclad’s needs, and more other distractions than I could hope to describe here. In short, my days are filled, often too filled. I’ve had to learn to do just what Mark’s talking about–being extremely efficient in my use of time. When it’s time to write, I try to set aside two hour blocks for doing so. I try to write three nights a week (it doesn’t matter which three, so long as I get three). Susan knows that when I’m in writing mode, it’s basically total immersion, that I get so focused and intent on what I’m doing that I’m barely conscious of what’s going on around me.

With my short attention span, that’s how it has to be. Otherwise, I get distracted, and if I get distracted, I’m done. It’s really that simple. To her everlasting credit, Susan knows and understands that about me, and she is usually willing to do what it takes to accommodate that, even if it means that I’m not much help with things like laundry or letting the dogs out. The trade-off, of course, is that when I’m not writing, I have to do what I can to help with these things, and I do so whenever possible.

People often ask how I’m able to be as prolific as I am with the incredibly hectic/insane schedule that I keep. It’s because I am able to completely immerse myself in my writing work several nights per week, and if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t come close to finishing anything. My ability to do so is entirely dependent upon my terribly understanding and patient wife, without whom none of this would be possible.

Continue reading

Time for some further updating on several book projects.

Ted Savas told me today that my Monroe’s Crossroads book is at the printer. We inserted the last of the maps on Tuesday, so it’s been there for a couple of days. This means that in about a month, we will have books. This book is apparently being selected as an alternate book of the month for the History Book Club, although we’re waiting for final confirmation of this.

That the Monroe’s Crossroads book is now completely finished now means that Ted’s getting started on the book on Stuart’s Ride in the Gettysburg Campaign that I did with J. D. Petruzzi. This book is scheduled for release just before the anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, at the end of June. Ted already has all of the maps and illustrations, and they’re all good to go, so there will be no hold-up on this one. Ted has agreed to allow us to add an extra appendix to the book, which is a partial driving of Stuart’s raid route, beginning and ending at Gettysburg. It covers Westminster, Hanover, Carlisle, Hunterstown, and, of course, the route of march along the way. JD and I are really proud of this book.

JD, Mike Nugent, and I did a volume on the retreat from Gettysburg for Ironclad’s Discovering Civil War America Series that was supposed to have been published last year, but it didn’t get done due to financial reasons. We’re expecting it to be published later this year. It includes a decently detailed tactical treatment of the fighting during the retreat–as contrasted to Kent Brown’s book, which focuses more on the logistics; they complement each other very nicely–as well as two driving tours, one that follows the Wagon Train of Wounded, and the other that follows the fighting that occurred during the retreat.

Finally, the maps for my new regimental history of the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry, which has been in the works for more than a decade, are under way. I am contracted with Westholme Publishing to publish it, and am to deliver it to them by June 30. Whether it will actually be published this year, I don’t know. If not this year, early next year for sure.

I’ve now signed a contract with Bison Books, a division of the University of Nebraska Press, for them to do a new edition of my book on the Battle of Trevilian Station, which has been out of print since early 2003. Bison has not yet given me a release date for the new edition, and I have a few revisions to make. We’re discussing adding a driving tour to the book, which would be a great addition. If Bison agrees, I will shoot the pictures this summer when I am helping to lead a tour for the Little Big Horn Associates annual convention, which is being held in Richmond this July.

It’s been nearly three years since my last book, The Union Cavalry Comes of Age: Hartwood Church to Brandy Station 1863, was published. Apparently, that drought is about to end, in a very big way. It’s possible that I could have four books released this year.

My worry is that somebody might say, “how can this hack turn out four books in a single year?” That is probably a legitimate question to ask. Most folks don’t know or appreciate the years of work that go into one of these books; I have more than a decade invested in the Sixth Pennsylvania Cavalry book. My research on the retreat from Gettysburg actually began before that. It’s not like I’m just churning stuff out without putting in the effort or doing my homework; a review of my bibliographies and endnotes ought to dispel that illusion. Nevertheless, I worry about people’s perceptions with as prolific as I seem to be. Yes, I work quickly, but at the same time, I hope that nobody can ever accuse me of not being thorough.

More updates to follow as I learn more……

Continue reading

A week or so ago, I posted here about Twin Commonwealth Publishing, a company and web site that I had not been aware of until Drew Wagenhoffer posted about it on his blog.

After checking out Drew’s post, I went to the Twin Commonwealth web site and reviewed all of the offerings. While their list of Civil War selections is still pretty small, they’ve got some really rare and really interesting stuff. It’s all really rare stuff, much of which I’ve never seen available anywhere else. As I’ve mentioned here previously, I’m working on research to do a book on Morgan’s Indiana and Ohio Raid of 1863, and am always on the lookout for material that’s pertinent. I found a work by Basil W. Duke titled _A Romance of Morgan’s Rough Riders: The Raid_ listed there. I was marginally aware of this publication, which is terribly rare. It’s actually three pieces combined–one by Duke, one by Thomas Hines on the escape from the Ohio Penitentiary, and a third about other aspects of the raid. These articles evidently were originally published in _The Century_ magazine but did not make their way into _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_(as many articles didn’t). The book was only $10.95, which was certainly reasonable, even if is only a 75 page book.

Twin Commonwealth uses a print-on-demand printing company called Lulu.com to do their printing. Print-on-demand, not surprisingly, means that something is printed only when an order is received, and it also means that things are generally not maintained in inventory. That I had book in hand less than two weeks after placing a print-on-demand order speaks highly for both Lulu and for Twin Commonwealth.

I immediately ordered the book, which arrived today. It’s perfect bound (that’s softcover for those of you not up on publishing lingo), but it’s clean. The originals were scanned and cleaned up, and the images came through pretty well. There’s one bad one–a photo of Morgan–that’s all rasterized, but the rest of them came through quite nicely. The book is only 75 pages, and there’s not much in the way of cover art. However, I’m very pleased with the overall product, and am glad that I purchased it, as it makes for a good primary source addition to my Morgan’s Raid research.

According to the web site, Twin Commonwealth is constantly adding new titles. There are also a number of interesting Revolutionary War titles listed in their catalog, and I am interested in pursuing more of those. In short, I will be placing further orders with Twin Commonwealth in the future.

Thanks again to Drew Wagenhoffer for tipping me off about the existence of this company.

Continue reading

Because of my professional responsibilities, I rarely get the chance to go to archives and libraries and actually do the digging myself. I seldom have time, and it also doesn’t make a lot of economic sense for me to spend a lot of time digging myself when it’s much less expensive to pay someone to do this for me. That way, I continue being able to bill my time at my hourly rate while someone else researches for me at a MUCH lower hourly rate.

However, I had promised Noah Andre Trudeau that I would go to the Ohio Historical Society and get some stuff for him. Andy’s working on what will undoubtedly be the definitive work on Sherman’s March to the Sea, and since he lives in Washington, DC, it’s difficult for him to get to OHS. My office, on the other hand, is just over ten minutes’ driving time from OHS, and I’ve been needing to get there myself to check out their holdings on Morgan’s Indiana and Ohio Raid of 1863, which is one of the primary reasons why I agreed to do this for Andy. Since I was going anyway, it added absolutely no burden for me to go do this for him.

Susan’s been in Pittsburgh visiting her sister for a couple of days, and I didn’t have much to do in her absence. I cleared my schedule out for today and made a trip to OHS to fulfill my commitment to Andy. What a shame. OHS has been treated miserably by the Ohio General Assembly for years. It’s very much the red-headed step child. Although it relies upon state appropriations for most of its funding, it gets next to nothing, making an easy target for budget cutters in Ohio’s miserable economy. Most of its satellite sites have been closed due to lack of funding, and the Ohio Village, a replica of a Civil War-era town that housed period craftsmen, is never open now. Because nobody in this state seems to give a damn about history, it’s one of the first and primary targets for budget cuts each year, and each year something more gets slashed. Consequently, the library and archives, which have an impressive collection, are only open for part of the day on Wednesday and Thursday and from 9-5 on Saturday. That’s it. It means that it’s terribly inconvenient to go there; the last time I meant to go, I cleared a morning and then discovered that they were only open in the afternoon. The lack of being user-friendly at all is a big part of the reason why it took me much longer than I might otherwise have liked to get Andy’s stuff for him.

I showed up there today, and got Andy’s material right away, fulfilling my obligation. I then turned my attention to Morgan’s 1863 Indiana and Ohio Raid. Given that the most important events of the raid occurred here in Ohio, and that Morgan spent the most time here, it makes sense that there would be lots of good material available. In the course of about three hours–until I ran out of copying money–I found seven or eight excellent primary source materials that nobody else has ever used in writing about Morgan’s Raid. One was a phenomenal letter by a soldier describing the nine days and nights spent in the saddle chasing Morgan that I’ve never seen before. I also found a small published pamphlet by the commander of the 8th Michigan Cavalry about the pursuit of Morgan that I doubt has ever been used by anyone else previously. I’m excited about it. I’m also far from finished. I have at least three more trips to make there before I feel like I’ve gotten everything that there is to be had.

I also wasn’t the smartest today. I was kept up too late by restless dogs who had been alone too much yesterday (I had to go to work and then went to the Blue Jackets game last night), and clearly wasn’t hitting on all eight cylinders this morning when I left. Consequently, it never even occurred to me to take a laptop with me, so I ended up transcribing a bunch of letters by hand, which is a miserable business at best. Because I was using manuscript materials and rare books, I was forced to use a pencil–and a tiny golf-style pencil at that. I hate writing with pencils and have since childhood. Unless they’re razor sharp–which they don’t stay for more than a few seconds–I REALLY don’t like writing with them. Having to transcribe this stuff by hand was NO fun. The next time that I go, I will definitely take a laptop with me so that I can transcribe stuff.

My point in raising all of this is that even with its terribly inconvenient hours and painfully thin staff, the folks at OHS are friendly and very, very helpful. All of this material is there, just begging for somebody to use it. Why the author of the recent book on Morgan’s Raid didn’t avail himself of these materials is really a mystery to me, because he lives in Cincinnati. Aside from this book’s distinct lack of editing or proofreading, it’s painfully short on primary source research materials. The author talked to every family along the raid route he could find, collecting tons of oral history anecdotes that cannot be corroborated (and repeated them as the gospel truth), but overlooked lots of good stuff like the stuff I found today. This fellow invested years into doing what he did. In less than a year of working on this raid, I’ve already turned up substantially more in the way of primary source material than he did in all his years of working on the project. That says to me that he was either plain lazy or he didn’t understand the importance of using only credible sources. Probably it’s some of both. In short, this book embodies most of the things that I really hate in a book, including the total lack of any sort of a bibliography. Why it’s gotten the rave reviews it’s garnered really is a mystery to me, as I think it’s terrible.

That this book is woefully deficient in lots of ways is the exact reason why I decided to tackle Morgan’s Raid–it still lacks the sort of scholarly treatment it deserves, and that 1998 book certainly is NOT that.

Continue reading

A couple of years ago, against my better judgment, I allowed myself to be talked into doing a 45,000 word biography of George Custer for the series of Military Profiles that Brassey’s has been publishing over the course of the past several years. Brassey’s–now known as Potomac Books–came to me and asked me to do this, largely as a result of my prior work on the Michigan Cavalry Brigade, some of which dealt specifically with George A. Custer. I immediately protested, indicating that I believed that, given the tens of thousands of pages devoted to Custer’s life and untimely death, and in light of Jeff Wert’s terrific 1996 biography of Custer, there was really nothing that I could add that hasn’t already been said, and certainly nothing that I could add in such a short book. With only 45,000 words to cover an entire life–and especially a life as full as Custer’s–you certainly can’t go into any detail. At best, it’s a broad overview.

My editor at Brassey’s kept after me about it and they finally wore me down. I agreed to do it, even though I didn’t think it was a good idea. Writing it meant that I would have to spend quite a bit of money buying books to complete the research, and I did just that. It finally came time to start writing, and I had major motivational problems. The truth is that my heart was never in this one. I never wanted to do it in the first place, and to this day, I can’t justify it. I managed to eke out three chapters, and when I got those three chapters done, I was absolutely convinced that I didn’t want to finish the project since I didn’t believe I could add anything worthy of publication. So, I started finding excuses not to work on it. At that, I was quite successful. Almost any excuse was a worthy one–the dog has gas, so that means I can’t work on this. I didn’t want to do it, so I didn’t.

The thing was due for submission last month, and needless to say, I didn’t have anything to submit. I finally came clean with my editor at Brassey’s this week, and we have such a good working relationship that it wasn’t really much of a problem. I’ve been released from the contract and feel much better about things. I’ve been feeling guilty about not finishing the thing, and have been feeling badly about it, but it’s all now in the past, which is a very good. It was another difficult decision for me, as I really do value my relationship with the publisher and was very worried about how the failure to complete the project might impact it. That fear led to me to simply ignore the problem and hope it would go away, and, predictably, it didn’t.

It took an e-mail from my editor to get me to finally deal with this, and I’m now quite glad I did. There does not seem to be any negative impact on the relationship, and I’m glad that this particular problem is now off my plate. It allows me to concentrate on the projects that I really want to do, such as Ulric Dahlgren.

Continue reading

Kudos to Drew Wagenhoffer for the post on his blog today.

Drew’s post brought to my attention a print-on-demand publisher that I had never heard of previously, Twin Commonwealth Publishers. Twin Commononwealth focuses on rare works from the Virginia and Kentucky, which is where the name comes from. This company has an exceptionally ugly and not particularly user-friendly website, but it has a really outstanding selection of extremely rare Civil War books to offer. In perusing the list of available titles, I found an extremely rare work on John Hunt Morgan’s Indiana and Ohio Raid by Basil W. Duke that I have been looking for for quite a while. I promptly ordered a copy.

This company does print-on-demand reprints. The owners have scanned the original works, cleaned up the scans, and then uploaded them to a company called LULU, which prints, binds, and ships. According to the LULU web site, it takes about 10 days from placement of order to shipping.

Twin Commonwealth joins Ward House Books, which is a division of Higginson Books, in making these extremely rare books available again in a reasonable and affordable fashion.

We used to publish reprints of regimental histories. In the prior incarnation of my publishing venture, the defunct Van Berg Publishing, we did exclusively reprints. We reprinted three regimental histories: the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry, the 9th New York Volunteer Infantry, and the 9th Massachusetts Battery. It’s taken nearly 10 years, but the 6th Pennsylvania has nearly sold out, of a print run of 825 copies. We have less than 50 left. The 9th Massachusetts Battery, also known as Bigelow’s Battery, had an initial print run of 500 copies. We’re into a second printing of it, and it’s been pretty profitable for us. The 9th New York, on the other hand, has been a disaster. Due to spending two thousand dollars to have the book indexed, our per unit price meant we had to slap a $59.95 price tag on it, and we sold about twenty of the things. Even after VanBerg went defunct, we still have to sell it for a higher price than I might otherise like, and I still have several hundred copies of this dog in my garage that I would dearly love not to have to move when we move into the new house this summer.

Then, Ironclad has done one regimental history reprint, that of the 124th New York Infantry, of Devil’s Den fame. Again, it’s a good unit with a storied history, but these books just don’t sell quickly.

All of this led us to make a business decision not to do any more regimental history reprints. First, and foremost, there are too many competitors out there, such as Ward House, and we can’t compete. Second, they tie up too much of our working capital by not turning over quickly enough. Every book stuck in our storage facilities represents dollars that I don’t have available to devote to other projects. Finally, given our prior experience, we just don’t have a desire or appetite to do these any more. It’s just not good business for us at this point.

This brings me back to my original point.

I love regimental histories and old memoirs. At the same time, the first editions can be REALLY expensive, and they also tend to be pretty brittle due to age and the fact that printers were not familiar with the concept of acid-free paper in those days. My greatest fear is to spend a large sum on a first edition book, have to use it in my work, and then ruin it in the process. I would much rather buy a reprint, because who cares if you mess up a reprint? That’s not to say I don’t buy the first editions from time to time–I own two original edition copies of the 1868 regimental history of the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry–I do. Rather, much of my library is a working library, purchased because it bears some relation to my work. So, it just makes better business sense for me to use the reprints under those circumstances, and that’s precisely what I do. For this purpose, the more reprints, the better.

Consequently, I’m just thrilled that these companies are out there, filling the niche that guys like me need filled. I just got an order of eight regimental history reprints from Ward House a week or so ago, stuff just not available anywhere else (including the extremely rare history of the 6th New York Cavalry by Hillman A. Hall). These print-on-demand publishers have the wherewithal and the ability to do these books well and inexpensively, and I, for one, am tickled that they’re out there. Keep up the good work, guys, and much success to you.

Continue reading

Today, I have some good news.

I’m pleased to announce the publication of the third and latest installment in Ironclad Publishing’s “The Discovering Civil War America Series”. For those unfamiliar with the series, the books in it are detailed tactical studies accompanied by a detailed walking or driving tour. The books focus on either smaller battles, or small portions of big battles. They are filled with lots of maps and illustrations. We’re very proud of this series, which has been universally well received. The first two books in the series were my Protecting the Flank and Jim Morgan’s excellent study of the Battle of Ball’s Bluff, A Little Short of Boats. The books are done in softcover and are priced so as to be affordable.

The latest book in the series has just been released. It’s titled No Such Army Since the Days of Julius Caesar: Sherman’s Carolinas Campaign from Fayetteville to Averasboro, by Mark A. Smith and Wade Sokolosky. Mark recently retired as a major after 20+ years in the Army, and Wade is a lieutenant colonel on active duty stationed at Fort Gordon, GA. Mark and Wade both became interested in the Battle of Averasboro while they were stationed at Fort Bragg, and their common interest brought them together to write this study. Mark is a member of the board of trustees of the Averasboro Battlefield Commission. There is also an excellent foreword by Mark L. Bradley, the foremost authority on the Carolinas Campaign.

The book features a detailed examination of the period spanning March 11-17, 1865, a critical period of Sherman’s Carolinas Campaign when Fayetteville fell, and then Lt. Gen. William Hardee’s men fought a magnificent defense in depth action at Averasboro that brought Sherman’s army to a screeching halt for an entire day. That delay, in turn, gave Joseph E. Johnston time to concentrate an army at Smithfield and then to formulate and execute a plan to try to defeat Sherman in detail that nearly worked at Bentonville. But for Hardee’s brilliant delaying action at Averasboro, Johnston never would have gotten the chance to fight Sherman on nearly equal terms at Bentonville.

The book includes lots of maps, drawn by Mark and Wade themselves, a detailed tactical analysis, and an excellent appendix on the importance of logistics in the Carolinas Campaign. There’s also a detailed walking/driving tour that draws upon the extensive knowledge of these two career Army officers. Of particular significance is their analysis of Hardee’s use of terrain in the conclusion.

I am particularly excited about this book, which is an excellent addition to our catalogue at Ironclad. I’ve walked the battlefield with both Mark and Wade, and I can tell you that they’ve done an excellent job with this volume. I hope that some of you will take the time to read and enjoy their work, as I don’t think you will be disappointed.

There are several more volumes in the Discovering Civil War America Series that we hope to get out this year. More on those as we get closer…..

Continue reading

I had previously announced here that my book on the Battle of Monroe’s Crossroads would be out by the end of January. That will, sadly, be impossible.

At the suggestion of a friend, I decided to give a new cartographer his shot at the big time by having him do the maps series for this book (there are close to 30 of them). He got the maps done, but neither Ted Savas nor I had examined them in detail to determine their suitability for publication. I was focused on the accuracy of the maps, not on their format. Ted simply hadn’t looked at them. When he finally got the book completely laid out and went to put the maps in, he noticed that they had a lot of problems: wrong file format, erratic sizes, too busy, and many of them too small to show detail.

We went back to the cartographer to re-do them, and it’s now been about 75 days. We have about 2/3 of them from him re-done–and the new maps are fabulous, really first rate–but we’re still missing a bunch of them. The book obviously cannot go to the printer until we have them all. The book was supposed to be out at the end of October. Then at the end of January. Now, it’s likely to be the end of February, meaning that my co-authored work with J. D. Petruzzi on Stuart’s ride during the Gettysburg Campaign, which will be out at the end of June, in time for the anniversary of the events chronicled in the book, will be out a scant four months after Monroe’s Crossroads, instead of more than six months later, like we had planned. Interestingly, Ted’s already got a big chunk of the Stuart book laid out and it’s only the middle of January.

Aside from the embarrassment of having announced a release date that is no longer possible, I am extremely worried that the very close publication dates of the two books will somehow hurt the sales of one or both. I also fear that I will be criticized for releasing two books SO quickly. Of course, the Monroe’s Crossroads book has been in the works since the fall of 2001, and the Stuart’s Ride book represents about a decade of research. Never mind those things. Instead, it will be “that Wittenberg guy pumps this stuff out–like some other prominent cavalry historian we don’t respect,” and I fear that I will be guilty by association. It’s a no-win situation.

Needless to say, I am frustrated almost beyond words’ ability to describe. When I spoke to the cartographer today, it took all of my will power not to go ballistic on him. I know he’s doing the best he can, and the guy’s had some health problems, so I know it’s my fault for not being more understanding of his situation. That, unfortunately, doesn’t do much to limit my frustration and impatience with something that should have been completed months ago.

I will keep everyone posted as to the progress of things once I have more to report on this situation.

Continue reading