Pick #3 in my Top 10 List: A set of maps
Part of a Series: Books Every Civil War Buff Ought to Own The third book, or books, every Civil War buff needs on the bookshelf is a good set of maps. These are invaluable–nothing less. They give form to the function of a campaign or battle and, depending on your choices, can put you virtually […]
Read more...Telling History vs. Making Art: Fictions and Histories
Final part of a series “[H]istory and historical fiction,” says historian Paul Ashdown, “are alternate ways of telling stories about the past.”[1] In that context, Ulysses S. Grant spoke more truth than he realized when he said “Wars produce many stories of fiction.” Aside from yarn-spun anecdotes about apple-tree surrenders and lemon-sucking generals, war also […]
Read more...A Pennsylvania Blacksmith Goes to War
At the turn of the nineteenth century, Charles R. Bowen found it fitting to include a brief biographical sketch of his father, Levi A. Bowen, in the Biographical Annals of Cumberland County Pennsylvania. Charles was around thirty years of age when the book was published in 1905. Although Levi was by no means famous as […]
Read more...Telling History vs. Making Art: Fictions told until they are believed to be true
Part nine in a series “Wars produce many stories of fiction, some of which are told until they are believed to be true,” Ulysses S. Grant said in his Personal Memoirs.[1] Grant was specifically referring to a fiction “based on a slight foundation of fact” from Appomattox Court House, where Robert E. Lee’s army surrendered.[2] […]
Read more...Telling History vs. Making Art: “Story is a central component of ‘history'”
Part eight in a series The ability to evoke emotion easily stands out as The Civil War’s greatest strength: From its opening shot of a canon silhouetted against a fire-orange sky and the use of the Oliver Wendell Holmes quote and the haunting Appalachian violin of Jay Unger’s “Ashoken Farewell,” Burns strives first and foremost […]
Read more...Telling History vs. Making Art: Communicating “the incommunicable experience of war”
Part seven in a series “We have shared the incommunicable experience of war,” Oliver Wendell Holmes says at the beginning of Ken Burns’ documentary The Civil War. Burns could not have picked a more appropriate quote to start his film with, not just because it set a particular tone for the entire eleven-hour documentary but […]
Read more...Question of the Week #7
Who do you believe was the superior corps commander, Jackson or Longstreet ?
Read more...Pick #2 on My Top Ten List–Reveille In Washington 1860-1865, by Margaret Leech
Part of a Series: Books Every Civil War Buff Ought to Own Pick number two in my Top 10 List: Reveille In Washington 1860-1865. Many books about the Civil War have been written, and many are good, but one that I think belongs on every bookshelf is Margaret Leech’s Pulitzer Prize winner, Reveille In Washington […]
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