PBS show Death and the American Civil War

PBS presentation American Experience "Death and the American Civil War".  Some estimates say over 750,000 persons may have died in the conflict.  In writing Hiram's Honor, scenes like this appeared often in my imagination.  See the film at
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/death/player/

Hiram's Honor Interview Author Podcast

American Civil War Today Podcast interview with me about the writing of Hiram's Honor is available for viewing at

http://youtu.be/iobmgcubLcE

Fort Donelson Major Civil War Turning Point

I recently spoke to the Salina Ks Civil War Round Table on Civil War Turning Points.  Many historians believe that the capture of Fort Donelson by U. S. Grant was the turning point of the Civil War .   I also discussed my ancestor's view of major turning points and his pension files.  Click here for more on Civil War turning points.

Hiram's Honor at Warren County Historical Society

Hiram's Honor is available at the Warren County Historical Society gift shop/bookstore in Lebanon, Ohio.

Pope's Retreat August 19, 1862

 

Some escaping slaves and Pope's Army of Virginia pulling back across the Rappahannock River on August 19, 1862.  My ancestor in the 82nd Ohio was in the rear guard of this movement.  The Second Battle of Bull Run was coming soon for him. In Hiram's Honor, this event is on page 78.   For more on this famous photograph, click here.

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