I’ll Be There: Civil War Encampment

On Saturday, June 1, two weeks from today, I’ll be manning a table at the School of the Soldier Civil War Ecampment at Allaire State Park in Wall Township, NJ. I’ll be signing and selling copies of my book Private Hercules McGraw: Poems of the American Civil War. Hopefully, I’ll also have copies of my second book, The Journals of Lt. Kendall Everly: a Story of the American Civil War. It’s being printed now.

The encampment will also feature all types of Civil War attractions. Visitors will be able to stroll regimental camp sites, talk to soldiers, listen to period music, see battles, and perhaps even talk to President Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States.

Come on out, by a book, and have some fun.

Related articles

• Civil War Reenactments (themsrp.wordpress.com)

A Civil War Soldier Writes to Mom: Mother’s Day 2013

Here is a transcript of a letter written by Y.J. Culbertson, a Union soldier, during the Civil War to his mother. Although it was written before Mother’s Day was an officially recognized day, I though it appropriate to share today, Mother’s Day.

Sadly, Culbertson died while fighting during the Battle of Gettysburg.

I offer my prayers and thanks to all mothers who have lost sons and daughters to war.

Columbia, South Carolina
May the 7, 1861

Dear Mother,

I take my pen in hand to inform you I am well at this time, hoping this letter will find you all enjoying the same blessing. I have had a bowel complaint since I wrote you last but I have got well nearly again. There are some of the boys sick but not very sick. Mother, I want you and Eliza to send me some eggs and light corn bread. Henry Fuller has written Sealy and Hannah. Henry and me are messing together. I want you all to get a box and put my things and Fullers together and send to Columbia, S.C. in the care of Captain W.J.M. Jones.

Mother, I am going to have my likeness taken and send it to you all and let you see me one more time. Tell Eliza I want her to keep my likeness when I send it home. Eliza, I want to see you a little of the worst. Eliza, I want you to take good care of yourself and my little children. I will tell you and the rest about my dream the other night. I dreamed I was at home, I went in the house and Eliza and the children would not look at me hardly. I thought I got right mad, but if it had been so I don’t think it would have been like my dream.

I remain yours truly until death,
Y.J. Culbertson

Related articles

• Happy Mothers Day (grumpyelder.com)
• The inventor of Mother’s Day would hate what it has become http://t.co/Q9NQ2TMmxr (bloomberg.com)

Weekly Photo Challenge: Change

Venturing forth with my new camera, I’ve confronted this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge with vim and vigor – well, at least I think I have.

The challenge is to present photos that somehow exhibit, personally or universally, some form of change. Let’s see what I came up with.

1. This first photo is of my son’s scooters. Walking our of my garage, the scooter’s were arranged just as they are pictured. I thought the arrangement made for a fine photo. Why change? My boy is growing up. He doesn’t use these scooters much anymore.

photo by S. Thomas Summers

2. My second photo is of a tree in my backyard. The photo was captured a day or so before Hurricane Sandy visited the Northeast. After Sandy struck, the trees leaves, all that gold, was gone.

photo by S. Thomas Summers

3. My third offering represents a more universal change. I write about the American Civil War. My first book, Private Hercules McGraw: Poems of the American Civil War, was released in 2012. My second, The Journals of Lt. Kendall Everly, should be released soon. The photo presented here is of a Union Cavalry Guidon. Flags of this type flew 150 years ago. The flag pictured here, flies in my yard.

photo by S. Thomas Summers

4. Finally, I present a photo of the English department’s book storage room at Wayne Hills High School where I teach literature and writing. Education has changed quite a bit in my 20 years as a teacher. Unfortunately, many recent changes are hurting education. This photo reminds me days gone by and why I became a teacher. I love books. I love a good story.

photo by S. Thomas Summers

Related articles

• Weekly Photo Challenge: Change (beijingcityphoto.wordpress.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: It changes color! (diamondmikewatson.wordpress.com)
• weekly photo challenge: change (plaridel.wordpress.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Change (pilotfishblog.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Change (boogiepants.wordpress.com)

Into the Backyard

Before I started to write about history (the Civil War and currently the life and times of Jesse James), I often would sit near a window that overlooks my backyard. Backyards often provide a writer/poet with inspiration. Well, my backyard often inspired me.

Today, looking out that same window, I was inspired – not to write, but to click, to click my camera. Here’s what I saw.

Shiloh: A Blaze of Glory

I have a difficult time reading text-book accounts of military operations. As a Civil War enthusiast, that poses a problem. It’s not that I don’t understand those text-book accounts. Truth is, I simply find them boring. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

However, I very much enjoy reading dramatic accounts of historical events. Guess that’s one of the reasons why I’m a literature teacher/professor. I love a good story.

Earlier today, I finished reading Jeff Shaara’s novel A Blaze of Glory: A Novel of the Battle of Shiloh. Loved it.

Book reviewer David N. Kinchen wrote “I particularly like how Shaara toggles between the actions of the generals on both sides, and the ghastly events of the war as experienced by the “grunts,”making the historical novel (with the emphasis on historical) well-rounded. Even though Shaara advises the reader in his “To The Reader” to read historians Shelby Foote and Jim McPherson if you want a detailed history of the Battle of Shiloh, I think even those eminent historians would recommend A Blaze of Glory to the general reader.”

Even before I finished reading the novel, I started researching the battle it speaks of: the generals, the places, the causes, the strategies, the triumph, the tragedy…and yes, the glory. Yes, I must admit, I read several “text-book” accounts. You see, once I get the story in me, once the story lights that fire of discovery within me, I’ll read anything to make that fire burn and burn hot.

Over the next few days, I’d liked to share my thoughts regarding Shiloh. Hopefully, some of my Civil War compatriots will join in the discussion.

Related articles

• A Baseball Recovered From A Civil War Battlefield (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Reading 8, Battle at Shiloh (dragonsreadwithme.wordpress.com)
• They Met at Shiloh (graceandfaith4u.com)

A Triumphant Yawp!!

I did it. It’s done. Save for a few minor edits and revisions, my second manuscript, The Journals of Lt. Kendal Everly: A Story of the American Civil War, is done and should be on book shelves later this year.

It was tough nut to crack, much darker than my first book, but it’s done and I’m happy.

Here’s the book’s first poem, the first entry in Kendal Everly’s journal. Everly is a teacher and a pacifist. He writes this not long before the Civil War begins.

English: Gen. Charles Griffin (1825 – 1867) (as Captain), career officer in the United States Army and a Union general in the American Civil War. He rose to command a corps in the Army of the Potomac and fought in many of the key campaigns in the Eastern Theater. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is the Place

April 1, 1861

Here, beneath these trees –
oak and ash – shadows lay
like blankets spread
for a community of picnics.
I feast on a moment’s song:

breezes, still laced
with March’s chill, weave
as ribbons about these limbs,
Giggling children dart
behind stalwart trunks

hiding from each other and me –
children teasing me, their teacher,
as I walked to school.

But this spring rumbles.
Men who drape themselves
in the dark robes of politics

brandish words as warriors
brandish swords –
and I am afraid.

Related articles

• A Civil War Apocalypse (thelintinmypocket.wordpress.com)
• A Poem from my Forthcoming Book (thelintinmypocket.wordpress.com)
• Confederate Ghosts (thelintinmypocket.wordpress.com)

Emancipation is Here: A Glorious Anniversary

“On this day in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signs the final Emancipation Proclamation, which ends slavery in the rebelling states. A preliminary proclamation was issued in September 1862, following the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam in Maryland. The act signaled an important shift in the Union’s Civil War aims, expanding the goal of the war from reunification to include the eradication of slavery” (This Day in History – History Channel).

Here’s a poem from my book Private Hercules McGraw: Poems of the American Civil War. In it, Private McGraw, atop a large tree, sees former slaves fight for the first time.

The Emancipation Proclamation

Shards of Night

Them Feds started pouring through
the wood like a river that run its banks.
My heart started thunking wilder than a cat’s
heart after that cat scampered up a tree
cause a dog done breathed on its tail –

and sure enough, I was up a tree.
But, hell – my jaw almost clanked
the ground when I see that flood
a might closer. I was perched on top
a whole cluster of Yankee darkies.

Shit, I says, Abe sent them damn slaves
to fight. I first guessed they’d be whooping
and shucking like a gaggle of monkeys,
but they clutched their guns like soldiers
and their faces where all chiseled from stone

solid as Zion. Our boys started popping muskets
first and a few of them niggers fell,
but the others paid no mind to that. They ran
straight at those pickets like shards of night,
screaming hell and spitting lead.

I seen one take three bullets before
he toppled. Each time blood puffed
from his belly like a red cloud at sunset.
And the one swinging the flag made certain
them stripes never scraped the ground.

I swear them darkies be men.
By God, they be men.

Related articles

• The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect – History.com This Day in History – 1/1/1863 (civilwarironclads.wordpress.com)
• On This Day In 1863, The Emancipation Proclamation Takes Effect (rememberinghistory.wordpress.com)
• The Emancipation Proclamation (neatorama.com)
• The Emancipation Proclamation paved the way for the politics of self-liberation | Priyamvada Gopal (guardian.co.uk)

I Got Some Fan Mail

I was very happy to receive this note earlier today. It’s from someone who read my book, Private Hercules McGraw: Poems of the American Civil War. Please allow me to share it with you here.

——————————————————————————-

Scott,

I received the book between 4:30 and 5:00 this afternoon. Once I got a few minutes to pause, I read the first 35 pages before I absolutely had to put it down.

Scott, this work is excellent! Have you ever served in combat? I have, and the sensual and emotional nuances you’ve captured here are genuine.

On the other hand, for the very reasons I’ve stated, it’s a gut-wrenching read, and that, my friend, is maybe the highest accolade I can give you.

——————————————————————————-

A nice Christmas gift.

Related articles

• I Wonder as I Wander – Why? (thelintinmypocket.wordpress.com)
• Private Hercules Nominated for a Pushcart Prize (thelintinmypocket.wordpress.com)
• Sunday Poem: Peace (thelintinmypocket.wordpress.com)

An Experimental Writer

Wordsworth on Helvellyn (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, William Wordsworth wrote The first volume of these Poems has already been submitted to general perusal. It was published, as an experiment [...]

If I may, allow me to make one revision to Wordsworth’s statement. The first volume of these Poems has already been submitted to general perusal. It was written as an experiment [...]

Each poem I write is an experiment. If an experiment is a test under controlled conditions that is made to demonstrate a known truth, examine the validity of a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy of something previously untried, than my poems are experiments.

Generally, I attempt to demonstrate a known truth. Most recently, I’ve attempted to demonstrate the beauty and horror of war. I want my readers to breathe deep the Civil War, smell it, taste it. If I fail than my poem has failed.

I’ll post one of my experiments soon.

Writing Challenge: Christmas and the Civil War

I posted this poem last year, but thought to post it again when I read New Jersey poet Adele Kenny’s writing challenge. Basically, Adele challenged her readers to write a Christmas/winter poem. You can view the challenge here.

I enjoyed the colloquial aspects of this poem. All spelling mistakes are made on purpose. The poem is inspired by an actual letter written by a Civil War soldier to his wife. Let me know what you think.

Merry Christmas.

Private Levi McCormick Writes His Wife: Christmas 1864

I bin down with squirts.
My backend’s raw as a sun bernt scalp
and cold air snaps at me
when I drop my trousers.

I borrow’d some clothes.
Had to wash mine, bein’ so smelly.
Ther hangin’ on a tree limb near the fire –
stil they be frozen, stiff as a ten day corpse.

Seen me plenty of them.
Anyway, send on a box. I need a scent of home.
Tell the boys mery christmas.
I’ll be lookin’ for that christ star whilse I wate.