THIS HALLOWED GROUND Bruce Catton

Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania.  I just finished reading THIS HALLOWED GROUND by Bruce Catton.  This celebrated book is the complete story of the Civil War as seen from the Union side. Catton is expert at bringing in the human aspects of historical fact and the personalities involved in the Civil War.  I found his writing an inspiration to writing my chapters in Hiram's Hope in a way that captures the war up close and personal. 

Civil War Prisoners of War

The prisoners of war returning from Andersonville and other prisons not only suffered the numbing terror of horrendous battles but had to endure the grinding misery of starvation in the prison camps.  The sequel to Hiram's Honor, tentatively titled Hiram's Hope, examines how my ancestor Private Hiram Terman, coped after his return.  Based on his pension files, it is a novel about how again, as in battle, the help of his comrades lifts him from lonely isolation to a life of hope.

“As for myself, I never felt so utterly depressed, cursed, and God-forsaken in all my life before. All my former experiences in battles, on marches, and at my capture were not a drop in the bucket as compared with this.” —Walter E. Smith, Pvt., Co. K, 14th Illinois Infantry commenting on his time at Andersonville

Freeman by Leonard Pitts, Jr.

I have just finished reading Leonard Pitts, Jr. novel Freeman about an educated ex-slave and Union soldier who ventures into the South after the close of the Civil War to look for his wife who he left behind 15 years earlier when he escaped slavery.  The novel gives a close up look at what it was like for a black man traveling in the turmoil of the war-torn and unsettled southern states.  Also portrayed is an attempt by a northern woman to establish a school for freed slaves in a small southern town.  I found the novel well-written and revealing of the cultural divides that existed at that time.   It gave me a feel for the period my great uncle lived in after his return from his  hard service with the 82nd Ohio in the Civil War. 

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. 

The Reminiscences Of Carl Shurz

I just finished reading the memoirs of General Carl Shurz, the commanding general of the 11th Corps, 82nd Ohio, and Private Terman at Gettysburg.  His account of the events of July 1, 1863 from the view of the commander on a hill match the events that happened to my ancestor who was fighting on the ground north of Gettysburg.   Click here to relive Private Terman's ordeal at Gettysburg.  Also, I learned much about events immediately following the Civil War that will help in writing my sequel to Hiram's Honor.  Click here  to read this memoir.

Historical Novel Society Review of Hiram's Honor

I was pleased to get this review by the Historical Novel Society.  "The book is well-written and the character building is excellent. Max Teman offers the reader a realistic and detailed account of the battles and what camp life was like for the soldiers. I felt as if I were there witnessing first-hand what they were going through. I was also pleasantly surprised to discover the author is a descendant of Hiram, which made the story all the more interesting to read. I highly recommend this book to readers who are interested in this period of time in U.S. history."  For complete review see http://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/hirams-honor/.

Second Manassas by Scott Patchan

Where the 82nd Ohio under General Robert Milroy slowed down the attack by Confederate General James Longstreet on August 30, 1862 allowing the Federal Army to escape at the Battle of Second Manassas (Second Bull Run).  I just finished reading the fine account of Longstreet's attack detailed in Scott C. Patchan's Second Manassass: Longstreet's Attack and the Struggle for Chinn Ridge.  I was pleased to confirm the position of my ancestor's 82nd Ohio regiment in this approximate area on the Sudley Road across from the Visitor's Center.  The landmark Stone House can be seen in the background.