Specific interest question.

Waterloo50

Major
Joined
Jul 7, 2015
Location
England
Having been a member of the forum for a while now, I have noticed that there are a great many people who hold vast amounts of knowledge and a genuine interest in a particular/specific area of the civil war. My apologies for commenting on member @rebelatsea but he for example, has studied CSN Iron Clads for the past 30 years and I'm quite impressed with that, that to me shows someone with a real passion for history.

So, here is my question(s), I would genuinely like to know who has and why they have chosen to dedicate their time to a specific subject. What is it about your chosen area that holds your fascination?:thumbsup:

Kindest regards
Waterloo50
 
Having been a member of the forum for a while now, I have noticed that there are a great many people who hold vast amounts of knowledge and a genuine interest in a particular/specific area of the civil war. My apologies for commenting on member @rebelatsea but he for example, has studied CSN Iron Clads for the past 30 years and I'm quite impressed with that, that to me shows someone with a real passion for history.

So, here is my question(s), I would genuinely like to know who has and why they have chosen to dedicate their time to a specific subject. What is it about your chosen area that holds your fascination?:thumbsup:

Kindest regards
Waterloo50
That's a great question. I have only been doing this for about 2 yrs,4 mos. I can't really say that I'm dedicated to a specific subject yet. So much of what I see and read is still new to me.
 
Having been a member of the forum for a while now, I have noticed that there are a great many people who hold vast amounts of knowledge and a genuine interest in a particular/specific area of the civil war. My apologies for commenting on member @rebelatsea but he for example, has studied CSN Iron Clads for the past 30 years and I'm quite impressed with that, that to me shows someone with a real passion for history.

So, here is my question(s), I would genuinely like to know who has and why they have chosen to dedicate their time to a specific subject. What is it about your chosen area that holds your fascination?:thumbsup:

Kindest regards
Waterloo50
No problem Waterloo50.
My interest was sparked when as a naval wargamer other periods than WWI and WWII began to interest me.
At the time there was virtually no information publically available here on anything after Napoleonic and before WWI. If you wanted to game and model anything else it was dig in or not bother. I played, researched and modeled Napoleonic and Armada period with the Naval Wargame Society UK, but it was the "ironclad" period that was my real interest, leading to the American Civil War, and ultimately the Confederate States Navy. In conjunction with two other members I co wrote two sets of gaming rules for Ironclad and ACW naval warfare, one of which is still in print.
The depth and level of research for the second set, leaving no time for playing, plus being on call 24hrs a day 6 days a week, caused me to cease being an active gamer, and I have never gone back to it.

For anyone who may be wondering, I also had a full time occupation, was and still am an active railroad volunteer, and found time to adopt and raise my now 25 year old son who has recently achieved his dream to become a full time steam locomotive driver.
 
I'm particularly interested in mounted field artillery (i.e. that which supported infantry). I first got interested in it because my great grandfather John Winn (of avatar fame) was in a famous unit. Once I got the basics down, though, I found a deeper interest because I discovered that field artillery was more complicated than I had at first imagined and the logistics and mechanics of how a battery functioned and travelled just grabbed me. There's also something I like at the gut level about artillery - they go boom and make a lot of smoke. Must carry over from my childhood fascination with fireworks.
 
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Once upon a time, when I was in elementary school, my mother wanted to get me interested in history. She recalled hearing about the "Monitor and the Merrimack" and thought I'd find it interesting; so she checked a book out of the library for me, which turned out to be the new (at that time) Duel Between the First Ironclads by William C. Davis. I fell in love with both the story and Davis's writing of it (which I still consider the best ever done on a much-done topic).

I don't think she expected me to go so in-depth, though. :laugh:

The bit that caught my attention was a brief mention towards the end of the book that both North and South built more ironclads, which immediately caused me to ask "How come we hear so little about them?" And the rest, as they say...
 
Growing up in a military family I have always had an interest in American History, particularly anything to do with the US Military. Having lived near a few battlefields I was really interested in learning more and loved to look at the images from the period in books. I started collecting stereo cards in the late 1970's when I was a teenager and was stunned to find out that much of the Civil War was photographed in 3D! Over the years I collected hundreds of general interest stereo cards, but could never really afford the Civil War ones.

In 2008 I got a book on Photoshop that had a one page description and example of how to colorize a black and white image. I started playing with family pictures and then wondered just how well this would work on older images. I started looking for really old images in 2009 and realized that the Library of Congress had uploaded their entire collection of Civil War negatives including over 2,000 stereo cards (2,000 images for the left eye & 2,000 images for the right eye). I downloaded a few and begin tinkering.

My first ones the color was OK, but it was not researched, so it was more like what I thought it should be. Also there was some bias for what I knew was right. For example when I would colorize a Captain's uniform I would leave the officer insignia in silver since that is the correct standard today vs. the gold bars correct to the period.

I created the site Civil War In 3D.com toward the end of 2009 and began showing off some of the home made stereo cards I had made. I immediately got great response from people interested in purchasing them (which I had not expected) and I got a lot of people telling me that I had this or that wrong. I began to research the correct period colors and planning visits to battlefields. One of the first trips in 2010 was to Gettysburg where I met Bob Zeller who has authored several Civil War photography books. During the same trip I met William Frassanito, author of "Gettysburg, a journey in time" and other CW photography books; Garry Adelman VP with Civil War Trust; and a few other people that have been key to my growing interest.

Bob Zeller did a presentation on Civil War stereo images and I showed him my colorized stereo cards that I had been making. He asked me to do a demo at an after hours session later that week, which I did.

From there my knowledge and contacts quickly grew. I started finding that I was meeting people with the types of knowledge that you are mentioning (single focus on the Civil War area such as artillery, cavalry, infantry, etc.) and I was able to leverage that knowledge to get more accurate colorized images.

The more of these I did the easier I found it to be able to reach out to a museum or "specialty expert" and ask questions about there area of knowledge. I found that most of these people are craving people that want to learn more about what they have spent a lifetime learning.

Currently I have a number of contacts at museums, universities as well as private citizens that can answer almost any question I have regarding color. I have been fortunate that a number of them have actually scanned copies of research material and sent me things to get the right colors.

I have one gentleman in New York that had a reproduction of Lincoln's chair at Ford's Theater made by the same company that produced the original. He saw my colorization and sent me a sample piece of cloth so I could get the color right!

A professor at a university is currently working on a book of Civil War uniforms and has a very large private photo collection of original period uniforms. He shared a large portion of his unpublished work so that I could be more accurate on my color.

For a colorization of Lincoln's Funeral train I found a retired professor that had managed to get a paint sample from the original car and he sent me the notes of the exact color choices for the car.

The curator for the museum at West Point reviewed all of my swords for one image to give me advice on how the original swords differed type by type.

The official biographer for one of the Lincoln conspirators sent me transcripts from the trial that showed what color clothes he was wearing so that I could match it on my colorization.

As I got more into stereo images I joined the National Stereoscopic Association and started show my images there. People began to request me to speak. I started speaking at local Civil War round tables, but soon was invited to make presentations at the Center for Civil War Photography and the Surratt House (among others).

Since I colorized my first Civil War image in 2009 it has grown to a small business with hundreds of images and products (see here). We have expanded beyond Civil War stereo cards and now offer images from 1840 to the present. The heart and core continues to be Civil War images with more than 350 completed (many of these are stereo images that have two sides so actual colorized images is closer to 600-700). Our images have been seen in a number of books, magazines and TV shows and we have been producing an annual calendar since 2010 that can be found in Civil War gift shops as well as calendar shops around the country.

As I was colorizing these images my wife started researching the story behind the images so that she could tell the story behind the image. At the beginning of this year I was contacted by the new owner of Civil War News asking if I could write a monthly article on Civil War photography. Since my wife had actually been writing much of the descriptions we use the job was offered to her and now we are both involved.

This is still more of a passion than a profession. We are not making a living from the work, but it helps to cover some of our expenses and it is always nice to share that passion.

This was not the plan I had expected when I did my first colorization in 2009, but have been thrilled to find people that also share a passion for history as I had done for the last 35 years privately and since 2009 on a more public basis.
 
My interest in the Civil War is really an off-shoot of my interest in battlefield tactics and weapons and how these two things are related. I find the Civil War an interesting starting point as it took place before the advent of many military technologies such as machine guns, long range artillery, internal combustion driven war machines such as tanks and aircraft, and thousands of other advances in military equipment. The ability to kill at longer and longer distances and move forces at speed changed warfare in history and continues to change it today.
 
Growing up in a military family I have always had an interest in American History, particularly anything to do with the US Military. Having lived near a few battlefields I was really interested in learning more and loved to look at the images from the period in books. I started collecting stereo cards in the late 1970's when I was a teenager and was stunned to find out that much of the Civil War was photographed in 3D! Over the years I collected hundreds of general interest stereo cards, but could never really afford the Civil War ones.

In 2008 I got a book on Photoshop that had a one page description and example of how to colorize a black and white image. I started playing with family pictures and then wondered just how well this would work on older images. I started looking for really old images in 2009 and realized that the Library of Congress had uploaded their entire collection of Civil War negatives including over 2,000 stereo cards (2,000 images for the left eye & 2,000 images for the right eye). I downloaded a few and begin tinkering.

My first ones the color was OK, but it was not researched, so it was more like what I thought it should be. Also there was some bias for what I knew was right. For example when I would colorize a Captain's uniform I would leave the officer insignia in silver since that is the correct standard today vs. the gold bars correct to the period.

I created the site Civil War In 3D.com toward the end of 2009 and began showing off some of the home made stereo cards I had made. I immediately got great response from people interested in purchasing them (which I had not expected) and I got a lot of people telling me that I had this or that wrong. I began to research the correct period colors and planning visits to battlefields. One of the first trips in 2010 was to Gettysburg where I met Bob Zeller who has authored several Civil War photography books. During the same trip I met William Frassanito, author of "Gettysburg, a journey in time" and other CW photography books; Garry Adelman VP with Civil War Trust; and a few other people that have been key to my growing interest.

Bob Zeller did a presentation on Civil War stereo images and I showed him my colorized stereo cards that I had been making. He asked me to do a demo at an after hours session later that week, which I did.

From there my knowledge and contacts quickly grew. I started finding that I was meeting people with the types of knowledge that you are mentioning (single focus on the Civil War area such as artillery, cavalry, infantry, etc.) and I was able to leverage that knowledge to get more accurate colorized images.

The more of these I did the easier I found it to be able to reach out to a museum or "specialty expert" and ask questions about there area of knowledge. I found that most of these people are craving people that want to learn more about what they have spent a lifetime learning.

Currently I have a number of contacts at museums, universities as well as private citizens that can answer almost any question I have regarding color. I have been fortunate that a number of them have actually scanned copies of research material and sent me things to get the right colors.

I have one gentleman in New York that had a reproduction of Lincoln's chair at Ford's Theater made by the same company that produced the original. He saw my colorization and sent me a sample piece of cloth so I could get the color right!

A professor at a university is currently working on a book of Civil War uniforms and has a very large private photo collection of original period uniforms. He shared a large portion of his unpublished work so that I could be more accurate on my color.

For a colorization of Lincoln's Funeral train I found a retired professor that had managed to get a paint sample from the original car and he sent me the notes of the exact color choices for the car.

The curator for the museum at West Point reviewed all of my swords for one image to give me advice on how the original swords differed type by type.

The official biographer for one of the Lincoln conspirators sent me transcripts from the trial that showed what color clothes he was wearing so that I could match it on my colorization.

As I got more into stereo images I joined the National Stereoscopic Association and started show my images there. People began to request me to speak. I started speaking at local Civil War round tables, but soon was invited to make presentations at the Center for Civil War Photography and the Surratt House (among others).

Since I colorized my first Civil War image in 2009 it has grown to a small business with hundreds of images and products (see here). We have expanded beyond Civil War stereo cards and now offer images from 1840 to the present. The heart and core continues to be Civil War images with more than 350 completed (many of these are stereo images that have two sides so actual colorized images is closer to 600-700). Our images have been seen in a number of books, magazines and TV shows and we have been producing an annual calendar since 2010 that can be found in Civil War gift shops as well as calendar shops around the country.

As I was colorizing these images my wife started researching the story behind the images so that she could tell the story behind the image. At the beginning of this year I was contacted by the new owner of Civil War News asking if I could write a monthly article on Civil War photography. Since my wife had actually been writing much of the descriptions we use the job was offered to her and now we are both involved.

This is still more of a passion than a profession. We are not making a living from the work, but it helps to cover some of our expenses and it is always nice to share that passion.

This was not the plan I had expected when I did my first colorization in 2009, but have been thrilled to find people that also share a passion for history as I had done for the last 35 years privately and since 2009 on a more public basis.
wow - just wow
 
:thumbsup:
No problem Waterloo50.
My interest was sparked when as a naval wargamer other periods than WWI and WWII began to interest me.
At the time there was virtually no information publically available here on anything after Napoleonic and before WWI. If you wanted to game and model anything else it was dig in or not bother. I played, researched and modeled Napoleonic and Armada period with the Naval Wargame Society UK, but it was the "ironclad" period that was my real interest, leading to the American Civil War, and ultimately the Confederate States Navy. In conjunction with two other members I co wrote two sets of gaming rules for Ironclad and ACW naval warfare, one of which is still in print.
The depth and level of research for the second set, leaving no time for playing, plus being on call 24hrs a day 6 days a week, caused me to cease being an active gamer, and I have never gone back to it.

For anyone who may be wondering, I also had a full time occupation, was and still am an active railroad volunteer, and found time to adopt and raise my now 25 year old son who has recently achieved his dream to become a full time steam locomotive driver.

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond, I enjoy reading about the things that fire up a persons interest. Your story is great, how nice that you were able to develop you interest in the Iron Clads and at the same time co-write the rules for the gaming community.
I'm happy that your son was able to achieve his dream, fantastic. :thumbsup:
 
That's a great question. I have only been doing this for about 2 yrs,4 mos. I can't really say that I'm dedicated to a specific subject yet. So much of what I see and read is still new to me.
I'm pretty much the same although since being on the forum I have developed an interest in Civil war weapons, I spend a great deal of time reading the weapons and ammunition threads, I'm always fascinated by the depth of knowledge that some members have on the subject. I was told by a few forum members that a specific interest in the CW normally develops after you have grasped the basics. That's the great thing about the CivilWarTalk forum, its a never ending resource.
 
I'm particularly interested in mounted field artillery (i.e. that which supported infantry). I first got interested in it because my great grandfather John Winn (of avatar fame) was in a famous unit. Once I got the basics down, though, I found a deeper interest because I discovered that field artillery was more complicated than I had at first imagined and the logistics and mechanics of how a battery functioned and travelled just grabbed me. There's also something I like at the gut level about artillery - they go boom and make a lot of smoke. Must carry over from my childhood fascination with fireworks.
Having read a few of your posts I could see that you had an interest in logistics, I didn't know that you were particularly interested in field artillery, I guess that the two compliment each other. Have you had the opportunity to load/ fire any of the old artillery pieces yet?
 
What a cool idea for a thread! I'm looking forward to reading the responses.

I'm still new, and nothing specific has grabbed me. Though I have noticed that spy stories tend to catch my eye, so who knows...I may head in that direction.

I have read some of your posts on spies and undercover work, I remember you posted something about a woman, could have been a nurse, apologies I cant remember the specifics but I could see that you enjoyed reading about that subject. Its strange really, the more I think about it, the more obvious it is which subjects people have a preference for. Sometimes the avatar or user name gives it away, especially with the forum members that like naval history.
 
I have read some of your posts on spies and undercover work, I remember you posted something about a woman, could have been a nurse, apologies I cant remember the specifics but I could see that you enjoyed reading about that subject. Its strange really, the more I think about it, the more obvious it is which subjects people have a preference for. Sometimes the avatar or user name gives it away, especially with the forum members that like naval history.
I like dogs?
 
Having been a member of the forum for a while now, I have noticed that there are a great many people who hold vast amounts of knowledge and a genuine interest in a particular/specific area of the civil war. My apologies for commenting on member @rebelatsea but he for example, has studied CSN Iron Clads for the past 30 years and I'm quite impressed with that, that to me shows someone with a real passion for history.

So, here is my question(s), I would genuinely like to know who has and why they have chosen to dedicate their time to a specific subject. What is it about your chosen area that holds your fascination?:thumbsup:

Kindest regards
Waterloo50

Having several direct ancestors/relatives that served on both sides, my #1 main interest is the experience of the common Soldier. Being from bitterly divided east Tennessee, the war in the border States would run a close second.
 
Growing up in a military family I have always had an interest in American History, particularly anything to do with the US Military. Having lived near a few battlefields I was really interested in learning more and loved to look at the images from the period in books. I started collecting stereo cards in the late 1970's when I was a teenager and was stunned to find out that much of the Civil War was photographed in 3D! Over the years I collected hundreds of general interest stereo cards, but could never really afford the Civil War ones.

In 2008 I got a book on Photoshop that had a one page description and example of how to colorize a black and white image. I started playing with family pictures and then wondered just how well this would work on older images. I started looking for really old images in 2009 and realized that the Library of Congress had uploaded their entire collection of Civil War negatives including over 2,000 stereo cards (2,000 images for the left eye & 2,000 images for the right eye). I downloaded a few and begin tinkering.

My first ones the color was OK, but it was not researched, so it was more like what I thought it should be. Also there was some bias for what I knew was right. For example when I would colorize a Captain's uniform I would leave the officer insignia in silver since that is the correct standard today vs. the gold bars correct to the period.

I created the site Civil War In 3D.com toward the end of 2009 and began showing off some of the home made stereo cards I had made. I immediately got great response from people interested in purchasing them (which I had not expected) and I got a lot of people telling me that I had this or that wrong. I began to research the correct period colors and planning visits to battlefields. One of the first trips in 2010 was to Gettysburg where I met Bob Zeller who has authored several Civil War photography books. During the same trip I met William Frassanito, author of "Gettysburg, a journey in time" and other CW photography books; Garry Adelman VP with Civil War Trust; and a few other people that have been key to my growing interest.

Bob Zeller did a presentation on Civil War stereo images and I showed him my colorized stereo cards that I had been making. He asked me to do a demo at an after hours session later that week, which I did.

From there my knowledge and contacts quickly grew. I started finding that I was meeting people with the types of knowledge that you are mentioning (single focus on the Civil War area such as artillery, cavalry, infantry, etc.) and I was able to leverage that knowledge to get more accurate colorized images.

The more of these I did the easier I found it to be able to reach out to a museum or "specialty expert" and ask questions about there area of knowledge. I found that most of these people are craving people that want to learn more about what they have spent a lifetime learning.

Currently I have a number of contacts at museums, universities as well as private citizens that can answer almost any question I have regarding color. I have been fortunate that a number of them have actually scanned copies of research material and sent me things to get the right colors.

I have one gentleman in New York that had a reproduction of Lincoln's chair at Ford's Theater made by the same company that produced the original. He saw my colorization and sent me a sample piece of cloth so I could get the color right!

A professor at a university is currently working on a book of Civil War uniforms and has a very large private photo collection of original period uniforms. He shared a large portion of his unpublished work so that I could be more accurate on my color.

For a colorization of Lincoln's Funeral train I found a retired professor that had managed to get a paint sample from the original car and he sent me the notes of the exact color choices for the car.

The curator for the museum at West Point reviewed all of my swords for one image to give me advice on how the original swords differed type by type.

The official biographer for one of the Lincoln conspirators sent me transcripts from the trial that showed what color clothes he was wearing so that I could match it on my colorization.

As I got more into stereo images I joined the National Stereoscopic Association and started show my images there. People began to request me to speak. I started speaking at local Civil War round tables, but soon was invited to make presentations at the Center for Civil War Photography and the Surratt House (among others).

Since I colorized my first Civil War image in 2009 it has grown to a small business with hundreds of images and products (see here). We have expanded beyond Civil War stereo cards and now offer images from 1840 to the present. The heart and core continues to be Civil War images with more than 350 completed (many of these are stereo images that have two sides so actual colorized images is closer to 600-700). Our images have been seen in a number of books, magazines and TV shows and we have been producing an annual calendar since 2010 that can be found in Civil War gift shops as well as calendar shops around the country.

As I was colorizing these images my wife started researching the story behind the images so that she could tell the story behind the image. At the beginning of this year I was contacted by the new owner of Civil War News asking if I could write a monthly article on Civil War photography. Since my wife had actually been writing much of the descriptions we use the job was offered to her and now we are both involved.

This is still more of a passion than a profession. We are not making a living from the work, but it helps to cover some of our expenses and it is always nice to share that passion.

This was not the plan I had expected when I did my first colorization in 2009, but have been thrilled to find people that also share a passion for history as I had done for the last 35 years privately and since 2009 on a more public basis.

I'm sure everyone that has seen your work would agree that its first class, I have some of your work hanging on my wall in the form of a calendar, Here I am in England and your work is in my home, all of my friends love the pictures, I think that speaks volumes about how good you are at what you do.
 
Having several direct ancestors/relatives that served on both sides, my #1 main interest is the experience of the common Soldier. Being from bitterly divided east Tennessee, the war in the border States would run a close second.

That makes perfect sense to me, if you can understand the experiences of the common soldier then you can relate and understand the experiences of your ancestors. Its a nice way to connect with the past.
 
well i do have a special interest in royal bavarian cavalry regiments - the sole reason for that is that my male family members made it their purpose in life to get shot off those regiments' horses whenever a chance arose

... and, btw i hate dogs (the feeling is mutual)
They may have got shot but at least they did it in style, those Bavarian cavalry uniforms were smart even if the men weren't.
 
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