Bad weather during the Civil War

If you've ever wondered what the weather was like during the War Between the States, it's pretty easy to sum up - it was bad.

The war took place at the end of the “Little Ice Age,” a period of general cooling and unpredictability that scholars date from 1310 to 1850. Despite what its name suggests, the Little Ice Age actually encompassed intense fluctuations in weather, with one year bringing an intensely cold winter and easterly winds, and the next heavy rains and raging heat.

On the whole, conditions began to warm after 1850, but during the war, Virginia experienced extreme precipitation and alternate periods of blazing heat and bitter cold.

Predictably, the bad weather affected morale. Soldiers who spent too many days in drenched tents complained of homesickness, as did those who marched in knee-deep mud on the notorious southern roads. Union general Ambrose E. Burnside’s “Mud March” in January 1863 marked a miserable attempt at winter campaigning and introduced his men to some of the worst mud of the war.

William Swinton of the New York Times, who accompanied the Army of the Potomac on the march, wrote of “indescribable chaos,” adding, “One might fancy some new geologic cataclysm had overtaken the world; and that he saw around him the elemental wrecks left by another Deluge.”

Excerpted from Virginia Vignettes

Written by Kathryn Shively Meier, an ABD Ph.D. candidate in American history at the University of Virginia.

Civil War novel debuts on YouTube

I am excited to finally announce the release of a video book trailer for my historical fiction novel Shades of Gray.

Video trailers for books are a lot like their counterparts in the movie industry - a visual promotional tool that gives viewers an idea of the basic theme.

The breathtaking and emotional artwork in the trailer is courtesy of Civil War artist Dale Gallon, a trailblazer in the genre of Civil War art, and one whose work is sought worldwide. Mr. Gallon is known for his attention to detail and historical accuracy, making each of his paintings a history lesson on canvas.

I encourage everyone to visit Mr. Gallon's website, where you can take a virtual tour of his art gallery, (located at 9 Steinwehr Avenue in Gettysburg, Pa.), or you can browse through his more than 200 images that range from the Revolutionary War to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

I really had fun creating the trailer, and tried to make it entertaining rather than blatantly promotional. Shades of Gray has been out for a year and a half so this is long overdue. Many thanks to Mr. Gallon for allowing me to use his beautiful artwork.

You can find my trailer for Shades of Gray on YouTube. I hope you enjoy it!

Fans did the talking during the Civil War

Today's youth do most of their communicating with their fingertips through text messaging, but courtship during the Civil War era was a little more complicated. The etiquette and manners that men and women observed during the Victorian era is a far cry from what we are accustomed to now.

The fun part of writing historical fiction is uncovering these interesting rituals and customs. For instance, did you know that the way a young lady used her fan could convey a message to a male courting her?

From the speed of the fluttering fan - which could indicate anything from confusion to rage - to the way in which a lady snapped it closed - the language of fans spoke volumes.

Here are a few of the secret messages that could be expressed with fans:

The fan placed near the heart: You have won my love

Half-opened fan pressed to the lips: You may kiss me

Hiding the eyes behind an open fan: I love you

Opening and closing the fan several times: You are cruel

Fanning slowly: I am married

Fanning quickly: I am engaged

Twirling the fan in the left hand: You are being watched

Wide Open Fan: Love

Half Open Fan: Friends

Closed Fan: Hate

Fan Placed To Left Ear: Leave me alone

Women soldiers in the Civil War

I'm reading a great book called, They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the Civil War by Deanne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook. As I was doing research for my historical fiction novel, I discovered a few women who dressed as men and fought as soldiers, but I am surprised by the number of them that Blanton and Cook have uncovered.

From the Battle of Bull Run (which took place July 21, 1861), to the end of the war - women fought, were wounded, and died on the battlefield beside their male counterparts.

One of the women who fought at Bull Run was Sarah Emma Edmonds (Pvt. Franklin Thompson of the 2nd Michigan). She published a memoir after the war, which I read while researching Shades of Gray.

On the other side of the battlefield at Manassas was Cuba-born Loreta Janeta Velazquez (Lt. Harry T. Buford). She arrived at First Manassas as an independent officer, not regularly commissioned and without a command. Thanks to the confusion and disorganization that occurred early in the war, irregular soldiers were not uncommon. Velazquez attached herself to Gen. Barnard Bee's command, and like Edmonds, made it through that first battle unharmed.

I am also in the process of reading Velazquez' book, The Woman in Battle, and will share some of the amazing stories she relates in her memoirs. Some historians are of the opinion that Velazquez exaggerated her role, but many of her exploits can be verified by records and newspaper articles.

Civil War general's romantic courtship

"I have never, on the field of battle, sent you where I was unwilling to go myself; nor would I advise to go a course which I myself was unwilling to pursue. You have been good soldiers; you can be good citizens. Obey the laws, preserve your honor, and the Government to which you have surrendered can afford to be, and will be, magnanimous."
- General Nathan Bedford Forrest

Since July 13 is the anniversary of the birthday of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, I wanted to share a few interesting stories about him - especially the great love story that grew out of a chance meeting with his future wife. Forrest was a colorful figure during the Civil War, and one who, in many regards, came away with a sullied reputation despite his many contributions.

A self-made millionaire planter and slave trader from Memphis, Forrest entered the Confederate Army a private and left a Lieutenant General of Cavalry. Despite being semi-literate and having never been formally schooled in military strategy, he is considered by many to be the greatest general of the War, on either side. His tactics are still studied to this day.

A fierce fighter

To get an understanding of the fear he struck into the hearts of his enemies, one must only read Shelby Foote's version of what happened at a place called Fallen Timbers when Forrest met up with an advance unit of Grant's army after the battle of Shiloh.

"Forrest saw his chance. 'Charge!' he shouted, and led his horsemen pounding down the slope. Most of the skirmishers had begun to run before he struck them, but those who stood were knocked sprawling by a blast from shotguns and revolvers. Beyond them, the Federal cavalry had panicked, firing their carbines wildly in the air. When they broke too, Forrest kept on after them, still brandishing his saber and crying 'Charge! Charge!' as he plowed into the solid ranks of the [infantry] brigade drawn up beyond.

The trouble was, he was charging by himself; the others, seeing the steady brigade front, had turned back and were already busy gathering up their 43 prisoners. Forrest was one gray uniform, high above a sea of blue ...

As he came out the mass of dark blue uniforms and furious white faces, clearing a path with his saber, he reached down and grabbed one of the soldiers by the collar, swung him onto the rear of the horse, and galloped back to safety, using the Federal as a shield against the bullets fired after him. Once he was out of range, he flung the hapless fellow off and rode on up to the ridge where his men were waiting in open-mouthed amazement."

The Romantic Side

That was the fighting side of Gen. Forrest. As an historical fiction author, it is fun for me to find the romantic side - and General Forrest definitely had one, as evidenced by Civil War artist John Paul Strain's painting, "Mary Ann."

The story about how Forrest met his wife shows that even in his early 20's, Forrest displayed the character, chivalry and powerful personality that later propelled him to become of the most successful cavalry commanders in the Civil War.

On a Sunday in the summer of 1845, Forrest met the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, Mary Ann Montgomery, and her mother while they were on their way to church. A couple of the local young men were on the river bank laughing and teasing Mary Ann and her mother after their buggy broken down in the middle of a stream. Bedford saw what had happened, dismounted, and immediately waded across the stream, carrying Mary Ann to safety and then rescuing her mother. Deciding that the boisterous jokesters needed to be taught a lesson, Bedford crossed the stream again and proceeded to thrash the young men.

After properly introducing himself, Bedford asked permission to call on Mary Ann. Impressed with his gallantry Mrs. Montgomery agreed. Bedford and Mary Ann were married six weeks later on September 25, 1845. And so began the life long love affair that would become part of the legend of General Nathan Bedford Forrest.


Another Interesting Account

Forrest was well known as a horseman - in fact he had 29 of them shot out from under him during the Civil War. One of his favorites was named King Phillip. Over the course of the time I spent doing research for my Civil War novel Shades of Gray, I found many interesting stories about the horses of famous generals. Here is an account of an incident between Forrest's horse and the Yankees.

"In August a troop of Federal cavalry was riding by Forrest's place, as much out of curiosity to see him as for any more definite reason. The war horse King Phillip was grazing in the front lot. As the blue-clad cavalry filed into the lot on the way up to the house, King Phillip's training in many a melee reasserted itself, and he rushed the bluecoats, teeth bared and front feet flailing. When some of the soldiers, astonished at his onslaught, struck at him, Forrest's wartime body servant Jerry- whom the other Negro's in the Forrest command had referred to, and obeyed, as "the Gin'ral"- rushed out to defend the horse. After Forrest himself had come out and the horse was back in the stable and things had quieted down, the Federal captain observed, "General, now I can account for your success. Your negroes fight for you, and your horses fight for you."

Reader pens poem about Shades of Gray

As I wrote in a recent post, I had a book signing in Isle of Wight County, Va., recently for my historical fiction novel Shades of Gray. A few days after the signing I received an email from Gwynne George, who sent me this lovely poem she had written after reading the Civil War novel.


A big thank you to Gwynne for taking the time to write and send me this beautiful poem.

Love hath not forgot
for it blooms everywhere.
On dead and dreary battlefields,
and in his stallions' pastures.
Shades of gray.
Shades of blue.
The sun
and the moon,
shall always prove true.
For love hath not forgot
in the 'Shades of Gray'

Gwynne explains that the poem shows that love can be found on the battlefields or in the estates of a wealthy Southerner. Shades of gray - the Confederates - and the shades of blue - the Union - can become one, even if they are as different as the sun and the moon. Love shall always prove true and shall not be forgotten, no matter how difficult or treacherous the journey.

Needless to say, I am honored and humbled that Shades of Gray inspired someone to write a poem! Thank you again Gwynne for writing it, and allowing me to share.

Independence Day

Happy Independence Day! Please keep in mind the reason we celebrate this day and remember that it took many brutal years of war before our independence was actually achieved. It is important that we remember what the founding fathers gave to us, and that we do not become the generation that lost it forever.

The Declaration of Independence
July 4, 1776

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton