I Met Abraham Lincoln in Florida

While in Florida I met Abraham Lincoln impersonator Chet Damron.  We talked about Lincoln's personality and the effect he had on soldiers.  My ancestor Private Hiram Terman saw President Lincoln in person on April 9, 1863 at a review of the army near Stafford Virginia just before the battle of Chancellorsville.  Many soldiers expressed how the review and seeing Abe Lincoln gave them new hope and confidence.  I put this in Hiram's Honor.  I felt a little of what my ancestor might have experienced as I talked to "old Abe" in person so to speak. For free chapters to explore in Hiram's Honor, see

http://tinyurl.com/7pg7tfr     Gettysburg

http://tinyurl.com/6n495ql   Andersonville Prison

http://tinyurl.com/6urlc8m   Belle Island Prison

The Untried Life: the 29th OVI in the Civil War by James T. Fritsh

Battle of Cedar Mountain where both the 29th and 82nd Ohio were engaged.

I have just finished reading The Untried Life: the 29th Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War by James T. Fritch.  I hoped to find some stories from the 29th OVI that would shed more light on the what happened to soldiers in Private Terman's regiment, the 82nd Ohio.  Both regiments came from northern Ohio and fought in some of the same battles, such as Cedar Mountain, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg.  What I found was an exceptionally well-written, researched, and documented book with many details coming out of the Giddings Regiment (also called the Abolitionist Regiment named after Congressman J. R Giddings of Ohio).  One that comes to mind was of a sane inmate of an "Insane Asylum" in the south that the boys of the 29th uncovered toward the end of the war.  This sane and intelligent man had been put there by his father to prevent him from enlisting with the Union.  Every page has many such accounts along with the names of the soldiers who lived the stories.  It is a long book of 501 pages and each page is printed in small type but I found myself thoroughly enjoying the journey.

Stephen Crane and the Battle of Chancellorsville

The site of Stonewall Jackson's flank attack at Chancellorsville.  My ancestor and the 82d Ohio were in the back center of this view and he narrowly escaped the onslaught.  Chancellorsville was most likely the battle in Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage (see this website).  Crane's novel inspired my use of the first person and the perspective of the common soldier in Hiram's Honor.