TWO REVIEWS OF HIRAM'S HOPE

Two reviews of Hiram's Hope, the sequel to Hiram's Honor have been received. To see the reviews, click here.

Kauffman Museum Newton, Kansas now selling Hiram's Honor

I am pleased to announce that the Kauffman Museum in Newton, Kansas now has Hiram's Honor for sale in their gift shop. We went to this fine museum to view the exhibit Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War.  This was timely since I am researching the personality of Abraham Lincoln for a chapter dealing with the Lincoln Funeral Train in my sequel to Hiram's Honor.  It is about the experiences of Hiram and his friends after their release from Andersonville and in the post-Civil War years and is based on Hiram's Civil War pension files.

The movie "Lincoln"

National Archives copy of the Thirteenth Amendment

After watching the movie "Lincoln" and seeing the personal attributes of President Abraham Lincoln and what it took to pass the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, I can understand the deep affection that Union soldiers such as my ancestor Private Hiram Terman of the 82nd Ohio had for the President.  The scene that sent chills up my spine and tears to my eyes was of the celebration in Congress after passing the amendment as they sang "Rally 'Round the Flag".  I wonder if the ancestral genes of my Civil War ancestor in my being were stimulated.  Although some say this is not an academic historical portrayal (for one historian's opinion click here) I heartily recommend the movie.

Back then they called Lincoln a dictator, a baboon, the original gorilla, and things much worse.  He was hated and loved at the same time.  The genius of democracy is that things still got done like passing the 13th Amendment in a time as racially divided and politically aggressive as the Civil War era. 

My guideline for political discourse today with someone I disagree:  " I respect a person's right to have an opinion even if it conflicts with my passionately held basic beliefs.   However, because I am civil and respectful in my discourse does not mean that I approve of his position, just that I recognize his personhood and that he, like I, is human, a child of God, with all the limits, rights, and responsibilities that that entails."

  

Civil War Pension Files from the National Archives

I ordered my Civil War ancestor's pension files from the National Archives and received 125 pages of information like the above documents.  Private Terman was a walking skeleton when he came back from 17 months of prison life at Belle Island, Andersonville, Savannah, and Millen.  Incredibly, he waited until 1897 to apply for a pension that he received until his death in 1926.  His Civil War service gave him heart problems, rheumatism, stomach, and bowel problems his entire life and he also suffered from what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.  I am researching these files in hopes of writing a sequel to Hiram's Honor about his and his comrades post Civil War lives.

Civil War Pension file Youtube

Civil War pension files contain very useful information.  For an example of how a file looks see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFRlBEjKG7Y

Civil War Ancestor Records National Archives

Medical record, muster sheet, and Prisoner of War records for Private Hiram Terman, 82nd Ohio from the National Archives.  Finding records like these for my ancestor added reality to the writing of Hiram's Honor.