Gratification

I got my author’s copies of my Monroe’s Crossroads book today. I finally got to see the finished book for the first time.

Ted Savas did a terrific job with the book. I couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out. There are about 30 maps and about 50 illustrations, and it really came out every bit as well as I hoped it would. Let’s hope that it sells well. Books on the Carolinas Campaign seem to sell very well. The only question is whether a purely cavalry study will sell as well as the books on the larger battles seem to do.

In September 2001, I made my first trip to North Carolina. I was scheduled to speak to the Rufus Barringer Civil War Roundtable, which meets in Aberdeen, NC. Aberdeen is the home of Bethesda Church, and it is also the location of the Malcolm Blue farm. Aberdeen is, as the crow files, about fourteen miles from the Monroe’s Crossroads battlefield site. My friend Teej Smith lives in Southern Pines, the next town over. She was the founder of the RBCWRT, and her group has sort of adopted the Monroe’s battlefield, at least so much as the Army will let them.

Teej arranged a battlefield visit for me. It was September 7, 2001, just a few days before events that changed our world forever. However, because it was BEFORE that tragic day, it was much easier to get access to the field. None of us had much working knowledge of what happened there, and there is very little in the way of interpretation there. We were left to our own devices, and it left me craving more information. All there was on the battle were a couple of chapters in books, and a not-very-good publication by the Army that really dumbed it down and was not very well researched. So, I decided to tackle the project myself. And the book was born that day.

I spent more than three years researching it, and made multiple visits to the battlefield, getting to know the terrain. I spent a long time writing it, piecing the story together, and putting it in a form that would give the reader an opportunity to understand what happened there. I gave a novice cartographer a shot at the big time by giving him this project. He did the maps, or so I thought. I’m not much on the technical side, so I didn’t realize that they would require a complete re-do, top to bottom, in order to be usable in the book. That process took nearly four months, which is why it took so long for it to be published, and not in October, as we originally hoped.

I wish I could describe the sense of satisfaction that I feel in finally seeing this thing finished and in actual book form. I can honestly say that I have felt a greater sense of satisfaction over seeing the final product previously, but I would not be telling the truth if I said that. I hope you will all forgive me if I crow just a little bit. This one was a LONG time coming.