The Book Shopper

Revisiting Civil War Reenactors

Battle, n. A method of untying with the teeth a political knot that would not yield to the tongue.

– Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

 

As the 150^th anniversary of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain (GA) approaches later this week (June 27^th) with planned festivities including a re-enactment, I am reminded of Tony Horowitz's 1998 book, Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War, which I still have on my shelves.

I wonder if there is still a hierarchy among re-enactors that Horowitz  described so well via one hardcore re-enactor Rob Hodge, who tried to do everything authentic except fight in battle with live ammunition. According to Horowitz, it also included dietery restrictions:

Losing weight was a hardcore obsession, part of the never-ending quest for authenticity. “If you look at pension records, you realize that very few Civil War soldiers weighed more than a hundred thirty-five pounds,” Rob (Hodge) explained. Southern soldiers were especially lean. So it was every Guardman's dream to drop a few pants sizes and achieve the gaunt, hollow-eyed look of underfed Confederates.

In this world, chubby re-enactors with spotless gray or blue uniforms are referred to as “farbs” who are looked down upon by the hardcore reenactors. But after rereading a few chapters about hardcore reenactors  you realize there is something maniacal about a person who prefers sleeping in leaky tents and eating rancid bacon just to be authentic.

Something to look for about if you go to a reenactment at Kennesaw or any other reenactment around Atlanta. (Thinking of the Union soldiers wearing dark wool uniforms in the Georgia heat is enough to make me cringe and avoid the crowds. My  photo was taken in winter.)

Bierce and Baseball

Two well-known people were severely wounded at Kennesaw Mountain, one was the writer Ambrose “Bitter” Bierce who I wrote extensively about in an earlier posting. An interesting aspect about Bierce is that he was the only major literary figure of American letters who actually fought in the Civil War.

No wonder the man was able to produce a work like The Devil's Dictionary.

Another wounded survivor is the father of first commissioner of Major League Baseball, Kenesaw Mountain Landis (1866-1944). Abraham Landis lost a leg at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain and two years later named his newborn son, Kenesaw (?!?), who later became the commissioner. It was Landis who restored integrity in baseball after the Black Sox Scandal of 1919, which led to the banishment of Shoeless Joe Jackson.

 

Getting My Sherman On: The Soundtrack

 

My continued interest in Sherman has not waned since last month's posting.  I wrote a short list of “Fun Facts About William Tecumseh Sherman During the 150th Anniversary of His Invasion of Georgia” which I sent to Like The Dew, a website of Southern Culture and Politics.  This Dew posting began an exchange with my old friend, writer and composer Alfred Thigpen, who wrote back that another Sherman Fun Fact was that he had a son who became an ordained priest– much to the objections of  the older Sherman.  When I quipped to Alfred that it sounded like material for a musical he  wrote back with these lyrics within a few hours:

 

I hold in my hoof a strange invitation,

To attend my son’s priestly ordination.

(spoken) Let me ponder this.

 

War may be Hell, but Heaven is too,

A flameless place with much ado,

About nothing other than “nice.”

It’s not my notion of paradise.

 

Eternity! Eternity!

Paternity! Paternity!

No!

 

If invited, I will not attend.

No need to make amends.

If he’s ordained I’ll bid him farewell.

For a warless Heaven is worse than Hell.

 

Sherman did not attend his son's ordination.

 

Getting My Sherman On

“Even the dumb kids liked the Civil War.”- Willie Smith, Oedipus Cadet (1990)

 

As one whose interest in the Civil War extends back to the Centennial Year when our family (a carload of no-good Yankees) visited Atlanta in the summer of 1966, it's been an interesting coincidence to be living here in the Atlanta area during the Sesquicentennial anniversary of General William Tecumseh Sherman's 1864 Campaign on Atlanta and subsequent March to the Sea.

 

To begin my private festivities, I stopped by Tunnel Hill Heritage Park in north Georgia near Chattanooga, to visit one of the historic sites of the campaign. The park includes the Clisby Austin House (shown left), the place where Sherman alluded to his intentions to wash his feet in the salty waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The old Western & Atlantic rail tunnel through Chetoogeta Mountain (shown above)– from which the park  gets its name – is also a significant in the history of Atlanta, because its construction (completed in 1850)  opened up the city of Terminus (Atlanta's original name) as a growing rail center.

When I am not traipsing all over Georgia looking for historical sites with my trusty copy of Brown and Elwell's Crossroads of Conflict: A Guide to Civil War Sites in Georgia, I have been reading B.H. Liddell-Hart's Sherman: Soldier, Realist, American originally written in 1929. Liddell-Hart (1895-1970) was considered a prominent military historian of his day and thinks that Sherman was the military genius of the War Between the States.

Because some of Sherman early commissions as officer were in the South and at the outbreak of the war he was president of the Louisiana Military Academy, Sherman unlike most Northerners, did not underestimate the South. Moreover, he understood the role of economics in the impending war. If the South seceded, the Mississippi River would be cut off to Midwesterners who wanted to export goods to other markets. This same attention to economics influenced his early realization that defeat of the South had to be more than a military one.

Quotable Ambrose Bierce: A Private 100th Anniversary Edition

For armchair Civil War buffs (is there any other kind?), 2014 is the last full year of getting your “Civil War Sesquicentennial on.” This is especially a big event here in Georgia since it is the 150^th anniversary of Sherman's campaign against Atlanta, which began in May,1864 and followed by his March to the Sea, which ended with Union capture of Savannah in December, 1864. As part of the ongoing celebration I have been thumbing through some book possibilities: B.H. Liddell Hart's biography of Sherman, Sherman's March to the Sea 1864 by David Smith, E.L. Doctorow's The March, Barry Brown and Gordon Elwell's excellent Crossroads of Conflict: A Guide to Civil War Sites in Georgia (reviewed here) and a recent addition to my library, The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce.

Bierce fought at Shiloh, Chickamauga and was under Sherman's command when he was severely wounded at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in July, 1864. According to Drew Gilpin Faust's The Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, (a Book Shopper Top Book of 2010) Bierce had the distinction as “the most significant and prolific American Writer actually to fight in the Civil War.”

Although he did write fiction, “Bitter” Bierce is best known for his caustic wit, which was prominently displayed in The Devil's Dictionary, a collection gleaned from his newspaper columns written between 1881 and 1906. The first edition published in 1906 was entitled The Cynic's Word Book and a more complete edition which became The Devil's Dictionary with over 1000 entries, was published in 1911, a few years before Bierce's mysterious disappearance in Mexico in 1914. (100^th Anniversary!)

I have been thumbing through an abridged edition of The Devil's Dictionary published in 1979, which includes illustrations by J.C. Suares (1942 -2013), whose artwork graced the opinion pages and book reviews in the New York Times for years (and many other publications too). It is impossible to know which quotes best embody Bierce's work, so I will share a few pairings of scanned Suares drawings with some quotes and let you decide whether to join the Bierce jubilee.

 

The Ghosts of Chickamauga

While on a weekend getaway in Northern Georgia, I stopped by Prater's Main Street Books in downtown Clayton, where books meet ice cream. Attached to Prater's is a coffee and ice cream shoppe that serves Mayfield Ice Cream. Is there anything better than sitting outside on a sunny day eating a cup of Moose Tracks and leisurely reading ghost stories?

At Prater's, I had purchased a copy of Jim Miles' Civil War Ghosts of North Georgia (History Press, 2013). It seemed appropriate. A large portion of this thin-wafer of a book, gives accounts of ghost stories near the north Georgia battlefield sites including the Chickamauga National Battlefield. It also reminded me that the 150th anniversary of two day battle that raged on September 19-20, 1863 was just a day or two away. With nearly 36,000 Blue and Gray casualities, if battlefield ghosts exist, you would find them there. 

Civil War Ghosts is a collection of local folklore, newspaper articles, and accounts from bored park rangers, over-imaginative Civil War re-enactors, and paranormal professionals. The book is mixture of Halloween like ghost stories, odd humor and a reminder of the horrors of the Civil War. My favorite example is the haunted Gordon-Lee Mansion near Chickmauga, which served as a hospital during and following the battle. Miles writes, “The mansion, said to be haunted by some of the men who died there, is available for weddings, receptions, luncheons and other events.”

Miles also includes battlefield sites of the Atlanta campaign such as Pickett Mill State Park, Alltoona Pass and Resaca. Miles also includes a few pages on the life of Confederate Lt. General James R. Longstreet, who was one of General Robert E. Lee's finest commanders. Although Longstreet fought mostly in Virginia, he did bring his troops to Georgia for the Battle of Chickamauga. Thanks to Miles, what I didn't know is that after the war, Longstreet settled in Gainesville, Georgia where he died in 1904 of battle wounds he suffered in 1864. Longstreet is buried at Gainesville's Alta Vista Cemetery.

Heading back to Atlanta after a restful weekend in the mountains, which included reading the Miles book, I stopped by Longstreet's gravesite. It seemed like the least I could do.

A Trip to Shiloh

Inspired by reading Winston's Groom's latest book Shiloh, 1862 and the fact that Friday is the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh,  I wrote up a list of other Shiloh-related works and sent it to Like the Dew, A Journal of Southern Culture. You can read the article  here.

Check the April Calendar of Events for details about Groom's appearance in Atlanta on April 11th.

If by chance you have migrated from Like the Dew to this blog, you can check other Civil War related books by typing "Civil War" in the search box.

Photo: Courtesy of National Geographic

 

Civil War Bedtime Stories: A Review

Finding the right book to read before bedtime is always a little challenging. Knowing that I will read for only a couple minutes before dozing off, I don't want anything long or complicated. Nor do I want to read a book with much of a narrative because taking one and two page bites from a book doesn't do justice to the storytelling or storyteller. But certain books can work well that way.

Currently this has not been the problem as I read n' snooze through The Untold Civil War: Exploring the Human Side of War by James Robertson (and edited by Neil Kagen). The publisher National Geographic graciously provided me a copy in advance of Robertson's visit to the Carter Library & Museum here in Atlanta last month, but Christmas time is a busy time and I missed the event. Robertson is a well respected Civil War historian most noted for his biography of Stonewall Jackson.

This gorgeously printed book (like a National Geographic magazine) is so big and heavy that it wouldn't fit on my nightstand, but that is my only criticism. In between the almost 500 photographs and images, the book contains 132 brief stories about 800 to a 1000 words in length, covering some of the nuances of the Civil War. Even a self-proclaimed Civil War buff such as myself (type in “Civil War” in the blog's search box) has learned many things about The War Between the States that I previously knew little about such as: the mail service, the not-so pleasant aspects of camp life, and the recruitment by the Confederacy (yes, it is true). Robertson and Kagen include anecdotes about the generals (Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, George Pickett), but important noncombatants as well (Frederick Douglass, Louisa May Alcott, and Julia Ward Howe).

 The Untold Civil War is an impressive, mammoth collection of stories, photographs, maps, and quotes. It even includes the musical notation of “Taps” (written during the 1862 Pennisular Campaign) thus making it a worthy addition to any buff's library or nightstand.

Photo credits: Both photos are courtesy of and  copyrighted by the National Geographic.The mail wagon photo is an Army of the Potomac's II Corps mail wagon photographed at Brandy Station, Virginia in 1864. The troops shown at the right are the  men of Company E, Fourth U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment who fought in Petersburg, the Bermuda Hundred and Forts Fisher and Harrison.

The Blue and the Gray Go Green

To commemorate last week's 150th anniversary of the firing on Fort Sumter and Earth Day, which is Friday April 22nd , I am recycling some recent postings about a few Civil War books. We take our Civil War just as serious as we do public transportation. Here they are:

• A review of Crossroads of Conflict, a comprehensive guide to the Civil War sites in located in Georgia.
• A review of This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust.
• Savannah Book Shopping. A look at some Civil War sites near Savannah and Tybee Island.
• Battle of Atlanta Coincidences. More about the Drew Gilpin Faust book and a trip down memory lane with Topps Civil War bubblegum cards.

And for those interested in living green, there's the MARTA Book Club (just scroll down).

Crossroads of Conflict: A Review

To mark the beginning of the Civil War sesquicentennial commemoration, almost hundred buffs came out on a chilly night last month to hear Barry L. Brown and Gordon R. Elwell at the Decatur Public Library introduce their book Crossroads of Conflict: A Guide to Civil War Sites in Georgia. It was a seasoned crowd who has been going to the Cyclorama since they were kids, (Elwell made a solo bus trip from Orlando when he 11 years old to see the large oil painting) and an audience who knows the real story on whether Confederate President Jefferson Davis was wearing his wife's dress when the Federal cavalry captured him near Irwinville, Georgia on May 10, 1865. (Davis was wearing Mrs. Davis' shawl.)

Published last fall by the University of Georgia Press, in association with the Georgia Civil War Commission, the Georgia Department of Economic Development, and the Georgia Humanities Council, Crossroads of Conflict is a comprehensive guide to the battlefields, markers, houses, relief maps, monuments, statues, museums, mills (mill ruins at Sweetwater Creek shown here), churches, depots, cemeteries, bridges, forts, parks, visitor centers, ferries, courthouses, capitols, prison sites, campsites, trenches, plantations, archives, arsenals, and lighthouses located in Georgia. All is all, 350 sites are included in the book, an increase from the last compilation, which listed 150 sites.

What is impressive is that Brown and Elwell's expansion of Crossroads' scope means the book covers more than just generals and campaigns. For example, they include the site where Atlanta barber and freed black, Solomon Luckie, died from injuries when a Union shell landed near him in July, 1864. (Luckie Street was named after him.) Another story, which Brown and Elwell told at their presentation, features Theophile Roche, a French national and mill owner in Roswell who tried to declare neutrality by hoisting a French flag as the Federal cavalry approached his mill. (Nice try, but to no avail as the Yankees torched the mill anyway.)

Book Organization

The sites are divided by the nine tourism regions of Georgia where individual sites and towns are grouped together geographically. For example, the Historic High Country region features the battlefield at Resaca (which has recently been expanded), and the surrounding areas of interest: the Duncan Norton House, the Resaca Confederate Cemetery and the Oostanaula River Bridge.

A Book Shopper's Top 10 Books of 2010

Unlike other “best” book lists, my criteria for excellence is somewhat different. To make the list requires a combination of value (how much I paid for the book) and good reading. Whether the book was published in 2010 is of little significance to me as I am a person who likes to think of himself as  immune to book hype (purposely avoiding this year’s darlings Jonathan Franzen, Patti Smith, Sarah Palin) while preferring to shop for books at used bookstores, independent book stores, book festivals, church sales and even online (gasp!). I crave the process. Here’s my list of most notable finds:

Detective Story (2008) by Imre Kertesz.  I picked up a hardback copy of this small novel from the Nobel Prize winner at Raven Used Books in Cambridge for $5 while I was visiting my daughter in Boston. I thought his earlier Fateless, was a fantastic book and this one did not disappoint. Without graphic details, Kertesz captures the terror of living in a totalitarian state and the subtle ways that those who commit tortuous acts can justify their actions.

State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America (2008) edited Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey. I continue to use this collection of 50 writers writing about 50 states for my bedtime book (requirements: short chapters, not too demanding). Some marketing book publicist gave me a complimentary copy at a book fair in 2009. There is an unevenness to the essays as you would expect, but Louise Erdich (on North Dakota), Ha Jin (on Georgia), Jhumpa Lahiri (on Rhode Island)  Jack Hitt (on South Carolina - specifically Charleston),  Joshua Harris (on Florida), and Susan Orlean (on Ohio)  were either insightful or entertaining and it’s a great travel guide to new writers before venturing into the Land of Nod.

Wanderlust: A History of Walking (2000)  by Rebecca Solnit. A fascinating look at the history of foot travel from early times to present day (it even answers the question:  Which came first?  Learning to walk upright which developed our brains or is it vice versa?) If you like to walk or think, this book is for you. I paid full price at the Harvard Book Store and was not sorry in the least and as I have already purchased two copies for those on my Christmas List.

Sag Harbor (2009) by Colson Whitehead. I was always a little pissed at myself for missing him at SCAD last year, but reading this novel has made it up for it. Set in 1985, Whitehead writes with great energy about being a black teenager and trekking out from the city every summer to join his buddies on Long Island. It’s mostly about being a kid and growing into a young man and figuring out how to fit in.  My friend Denise bought this book discounted through the  Better World Books as part of the Better World -- Whole Foods book club (a book club that is similar to the MARTA book club in name only). I liked the book better than she did. More of a guys book of serious fiction, if there is such a thing.