posted
I've recently become interested in the Civil War era and ways that it may (hopefully) influence my writing, General/President Grant in particular (an encestor of mine ). Anybody know a good books or biography to recommend? There is a lot of stuff out there, but I'm afraid to just pick up anything, for fear of another dry history book.
Posts: 292 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
My brother is a CW reenactor and an amateur CW historian. I'll ask him for recommendations, or you are free to email him yourself with any questions, discussions, etc, at:
A107thOVI@aol.com
Susan
Edit: His name is Randy.
[This message has been edited by shadowynd (edited October 22, 2004).]
posted
I read a civil war fiction book a few years ago that was really interesting. It was an alternate-history, so it has some fantasy elements, but the author did a lot of research on the historical and composite characters.
It was called Guns of the South, and I loved it. It does have a small amount of adult material (it's more of an allusion to it, nothing explicit). The copy I had even included a number of historical notes and notes from the author about how and why he did certain things.
As far as non-fiction, I'm not sure. I have a few people I can ask.
posted
As far as battlefields and artifacts goes, you might check some of the metal detector websites. There's usually a bunch of people who know alot about each particular era and can identify virtually everything. While there you can pick up the day to day mundane bits of history (which are often the most interesting.) Frequently there are links to treasure stories, etc. which can prove to be interesting history too.
Posts: 497 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
The best one I've seen is BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM by James McPherson. We used it in a class I took, and it was interesting and most certainly not dry.
edit: Grammer escaping me this morning!
[This message has been edited by Lorien (edited October 25, 2004).]
posted
Wow, a Civil War buff! I hope this thread isn't too old to bother responding to.
At any rate, I have a rather strange hobby: I am a wet plate photographer. Wet plate was the principal method of photography used during the Civil War. I used to attend CW reenactments in the guise of an "ambrotypist", where I produced wet plate portraits of the other participants using antique camera equipment (e.g., a sliding box camera equipped with a Holms, Booth, and Haydens lens, ca. 1860), and the original methodology. I'd come home with silver nitrate stains all the way up to my elbows--photography was REALLY messy back then.
I don't have as much time to indulge in photograhy as I used to, mostly due to my work--I work as a tech writer for the US Army.
Well, getting back to your question, I must admit that I'm a bit dissapointed with most of the speculative fiction that's based on the Civil War. I think you ought to ignore everyting that's already been published and write your own CW work from scratch.
Frankly, I'd love to be able to read a historical series set in the CW, in the vein of "Master and Commander" by Patrick O'Brian. (M&C is not necessarily speculative fiction, but it's some darn good historical fiction.)
If you have any general questions about the CW, or black powder firearms, or old photo tech, or hard core steam punk, ask away.
posted
There's actually a book for writers of the civil war. It's called "Everyday Life During the Civil War." Very interesting and informative. Gives you all the juicy stuff you can insert to make your world more complete and detailed.
Posts: 1621 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Oops! I forgot to add the two book I was thinking about when I submitted that other post. Here are two very interesting nonfiction books about the Civil War, which don't the get the attention they deserve...
Submarine Warfare in the Civil War by Mark Ragan
and...
The Story the Soldiers Would't Tell: Sex in the Civil War by Thomas P. Lowry
posted
No he wasn't, he was a foreign national hired to be a balloon-based spotter/observer for the Union troops.
A foreign observer is a military officer sent to attach himself to one side's troops, to report back to his command on the 'state of the art' as implemented in the battles he observes.
Now Zeppelin may have done that also, on the sly, but that wasn't his primary role.
I believe you are confusing the gentleman with Thaddeus Sobieski Colincourt Lowe (aka "Professor Lowe), a civilian contractor who directed the federal balloon corps.
Count Zeppelin was a commissioned officer in the Prussian army who carried two separate sets of credentials, one for the Confederates and one for the Federals--depending on which side happened to arrest him for sneaking around between the lines, I suppose. Zeppelin made at least one flight in a Federal balloon--accompanied by Prof. Lowe--but he never acted as an artillery spotter.
Prof. Lowe was one of two balloonists employed by the govt. The other was John LaMountain, who was a bit of a show boater and never provided much in the way of useful reconnaissance. Prof. Lowe and his assistants, on the other hand, made over a thousand balloon ascensions during McClellan's peninsular campaign. During many of these flights, Prof. Lowe did indeed act as a spotter for indirect artillery fire. He communicated with the cannoneers via telegraph.
I should have checked the information in that website more carefully before linking to it. My bad.
posted
Well, I know that Count Zeppelin kept a detailed journal of his experiences during the Civil War, but I've never been able to find English translations of them. I find tantalizing excerpts of his CW journals in books I've read about rigid airships, but nothing more substantial. On at least one occasion, Zeppelin and his escorts were caught in the middle of a federal artillery barrage.
On the other hand, I really haven’t been searching very diligently. Too many distractions.
Tonight’s episode of BATTLEFIELD DETECTIVES (History Channel) was taped down here at the Yuma Proving Ground, where I work. In this episode, they do a very basic ballistic analysis on a replica of a muzzle loading cannon. I was off somewhere else when the episode was taped.
I'll post it if I ever any first hand accounts written by foriegn observers of the CW.
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). Anybody know a good books or biography to recommend? There is a lot of stuff out there, but I'm afraid to just pick up anything, for fear of another dry history book.
