Category Archives: Civil War

Since August of 2010, I’ve spent two to three hours every day researching a writing about the Civil War. My other (and much more heavily read) blog Civil War Daily Gazette, focuses each day on what happened 150 years ago. I’d have to say that the blog is a smashing success with roughly 600 hits a day and a couple thousand “regular” readers (folks who drop in a couple times a week).

I’m honestly shocked at the reception it’s getting. The number alone are a reward in and of themselves – this is not an easy blog to write.

Every since I was a little kid, I had an interest in the Civil War. When the 150th anniversary rolled around, I wanted to do something to commemorate it. Somehow, I got the idea to write a little bit each day. If ever someone bit off more than they could comfortably chew, it was me.

The process of doing the research and writing is a complex one. It’s made even more complex by the fact that I’m not incredibly knowledgeable about the Civil War. I have no idea what’s coming up on any given day. I generally have no clue at all how a campaign or situation is going to play out.

At any given time, I use around thirty real-life books and twenty or so digital books (thank God for GoogleBooks). As for what to write about, I usually have a narrative going. Most of the time, it’s based upon what campaign is going on.

Right now, I’m a little over four months ahead in my writing. That places me smack dab in the middle of the Antietam Campaign of 1862. Along with that, there were two campaigns in the West (Mississippi and Tennessee/Kentucky), plus another in West Virginia, plus a few others in various other locations. And on top of all of it was the Emancipation Proclamation, which was announced shortly following the battle of Antietam – the bloodiest day in American history.

Needless to say, I’m mentally exhausted. Though I only work about three hours a day on it, they are three unbelievably frantic hours. By this stage of the game, I can write like nobody’s business. I’m also a halfway okay researcher. That doesn’t, however, give me the ability to juggle several different (and often linked) narratives.

Let me try to describe it so that someone who isn’t me could understand. For a second, let’s pretend that someone wanted to make a daily soap opera based upon Lord of the Rings. This show would air seven days a week for four and a half years. Now pretend that every book you needed for research was some twisted version of the Silmarillion. Now, each of those versions would be different, expressed through varying and usually conflicting points of view.

When you’ve finally wrapped your head around that, picture, after researching and writing it, after creating your narrative, selecting which messed up Silmarillions to believe, you publish a 1500 word treatment and release it to the public. Every single day.

And now picture one of two reactions, each occurring in equal amounts. One reaction goes something like, “This is a cool idea. My grandfather used to live in The Shire!” The other reaction is this: “You are a neo-Elf! The Silmarillions that you are using are seen as abominations by most Middle Earth historians! Melkor was framed and here’s an assload of flimsy, anecdotal evidence that proves Fëanor and his sons changed their story after being victorious. Hail the Balrogs!” ((Clearly, I have no idea what I’m talking about here.))

Okay, maybe this isn’t the best example ever, but seriously, it’s what I deal with. Except usually there’s no response at all.

But like I said, the numbers are rewarding. I can see how long people visit the site and it really is long enough for the vast majority to read my entire article each day. That’s such an honor. That doesn’t make it any less insane of a task.

The problem is that I can’t really take a vacation from it. If I were merely writing a book, I could put it aside and come back to it later. I’m on a day-by-day schedule, I don’t really have that option.

And so I start thinking ridiculous things like “this really isn’t worth it anymore,” when really it is. So what am I saying here? I’m not sure. I just wanted to vent a little. I’m sure I’ll still keep researching and writing. They can’t get rid of me that easily.

There’s another Vintage Base Ball game this weekend at Fort Vancouver. We’ll be there and will have plenty of photos of the fort and game.

While doing some research for the Civil War Daily Gazette, I came across this picture:

I’d like to use it for the CWDG, but since it’s pre-election, it’s unlikely that I’ll find a place for it. However, I found it too wonderful to just ignore.

Pictured are the four Presidential candidates from 1860. From left to right (as it should be read), we see John Bell, former senator of Tennessee and candidate for the Constitutional Union Party. Their platform was simple – ignore the question of slavery and keep the Union together no matter the cost. His belt reads “Union Club” and he’s holding a bat with “Fusion” written upon it. He sums up the situation thusly: It appears to me very singular that we three should strike “foul” and be “put out” while Old Abe made such a good “lick.”

The short fellow is Stephen Douglas, the northern Democrat’s candidate. He was short and is always portrayed as really short. He answers Bell, saying “That’s because he had that confounded rail to strike with, I thought our fusion would be a “short stop” to his career.” The words “Little Giant” are upon his belt, while his bat reads “Non Intervention.” The northern Democrats wished for the territories (and new states) themselves to decide whether slavery would or would not be allowed – the federal government would not intervene.

The gentleman holding his nose and running away is Vice-President John Breckinridge. “Disunion Club” says his belt and his bat is for “Slavery Extension.” “I guess I’d better leave for Kentucky, for I smell something strong around here, and begin to think that we are completely ‘skunk’d’.” The southern Democrats, who nominated Breckinridge, were for the extension of slavery into the new states and territories.

Last up in Old Abe standing upon home base. “Gentlemen, if any of you should ever take a hand in another match at this game, remember that you must have a ‘good bat’ and strike a ‘fair ball’ to make a ‘clean score’ and a ‘home run.’” Abe’s good bat is a rail (this image was often used since he was known as a simple country rail splitter), reading, “Equal Rights and Free Territory.” His belt reads “Wide Awake.” The Wide Awakes were a Republican campaign organization during the 1860 election.

Candidates did not campaign themselves, they had parties and organizations to do that for them (Douglas, however, was the exception).

The caption is sort of wrong when it claims that baseball (actually base ball) wasn’t called the “national game.” It was called that by 1856.

Tomorrow’s match between the Vancouver Occidentals and the Fort Vancouver Shermans takes place on the Fort Vancouver Parade Grounds in Vancouver, Washington. I’ll report back with the results and photos. Huzzah!

I’m going to talk a bit about this Civil War blog that I’ll be starting in November. It’s been on my mind a lot lately. I’ve mentioned it before, so if you have no idea what I’m talking about, go here.

Basically, the blog is called The Civil War Daily Gazette and will follow the war, day-by-day as the 150th anniversary passes from 2010 – 2015 (I’m starting with the November 1860 election).

Inspiration for this came from reading Shelby Foote’s The Civil War: A Narrative, which I’m still making my way through (I’m in the middle of Volume 3, the last volume). I had never read it before, which is odd since it’s a very nice overview of the conflict. In reading it, I took notice of so many things happening at the same time that I wondered what it would all look like in a timeline, which got me thinking that such a thing would be fun to create, but would take a very, very long time.

So I decided to take my time, every day examining that same day 150 years ago. This will, of course, take me to April or May of 2015. Four an a half years is a long time from now. This will take dedication and commitment, as well as hard work and research.

How do I keep it interesting? How do I come up with something on days where there’s “nothing”? How do I decide what to leave out when there are too many things happening? How detailed should I get? There are so many questions that I can’t even begin to answer.

Just today I was reading about General Sherman in Georgia, Forrest in Tennessee, Grant in Virginia, Early in another part of Virginia and stuff happening in Brazil and Vermont. While these things may not have happened all in the same day, especially in 1864, there was a lot going on at once. I got a little panicked and even second guessed my whole idea. But then I realized that 1864 (or rather, 2014) is a long way away. If I make it to that stage of the war, I’ll be a veteran myself. Just as the soldiers were able to deal with it because they had suffered through the war from the beginning (well, some of them), I’ll be able to much more easily cope with my own worries because I’ve been writing about it for three or so years.

I guess that maintaining the blog won’t be as difficult as starting it. I don’t know that for sure, of course, since I’ve done neither, but that’s my suspicion.

For now, I’ve gotten the blog up and running, have sorted my categories, planned, done some research and have a general idea of a start date – right before the November 6th election. Generally histories of the Civil War start with Fort Sumter, April 1861. I’m starting four months prior to it, attempting to explain how the election of a president can lead a country to split in two and then draw blood. Lots and lots of blood.

If I can’t explain how, I can at least explain the events that happened. Most of all, however, I’m just excited for this to start. I can’t wait to dig into the research and writing (which I’ll be starting in the next week or so). I can’t wait for the first posts to appear and the ball to get rolling. I’m not sure how all this will play out, but I’m excited to find that out too.

The 150th anniversary of the American Civil War is next year. The war started in 1861 and lasted until 1865. That’s 150 years as of 2011.

I wanted to do something to commemorate that. I thought about visiting each major battlefield on its own anniversary, I thought about doing some big Civil War tour, I thought about a lot of fun ideas. And who knows, maybe I’ll even do some of them.

But still, even though these ideas were fun, it just wasn’t quite what I wanted. Then, while reading (well, listening to) Shelby Foote’s three-volume classic, The Civil War: A Narrative, I was amazed how so many events, large and small, happened on the same day. In fact, over the four years of the war, nearly every day held some heroic or tragic exploit.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to follow the war, day-by-day, as it unfolded, as it trudged bloodily through the years through victory and defeat? And wouldn’t it be even more interesting to write about it myself?

That’s when I decided to start (and try to keep) the Civil War Daily Gazette. It will be a blog follows the war, 150 years later. Each day’s post will be a recalling of what happened on that day during the war. This will be more than just a sentence or two with a few random battle names. Hopefully, this will give a better picture of how the war and time flowed.

I was unsure when to start. The first major battle was Manassas on July 21, 1861. That’s a logical start date. The firing upon Fort Sumter was even earlier, on April 12 – also a nice start date. But that would miss the build up, the secession, the election of Lincoln.

So maybe that’s it! Lincoln was elected on November 6, 1860. The day after that, all hell broke loose. Over that fall and winter, America was torn in two. The seeds of this rebellion were planted as long ago as the Revolution, it’s true. But the straw that brought it all down was the reaction to the election of Abraham Lincoln.

November 6, 2010 will be the 150th anniversary of the election of the 16th president of the United States. He would not take office until March 4th of the next year. These months are extremely important, not only to the war, but to the history of America. How can any study of the Civil War not include them?

And that is where I’ll start. November 6, 2010 will be my first (official) post on CivilWarDailyGazette.com. I’ve got research, organization, research, planning and research to do prior to that date.

My biggest concern is whether I’ll be able to keep it up until the end of the war.

There will be more about this as I go, I’m sure. But for now, I just thought you should know.