NF Trial by Ink and Innuendo: The Military and Political Assault on George G. Meade After Gettysburg (Little Falls Press, 2021)

Non-Fiction

Lincoln56

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Paging @Eric Wittenberg

I've just finished reading "The Summer of '63: Gettysburg Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War (Emerging Civil War Anniversary Series)" published by Savas Beatie.

Found this to be a very good book and contribution to Gettysburg literature and enjoyed it very much.

Reading your second contribution to this book, a chapter titled "Civil War Witch Hunt: George Gordon Meade, the Retreat From Gettysburg, and the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War". I'm very interested in this particular aspect of the ACW; there's a reference to a forthcoming book which you have written as an expansion of this chapter; titled "Trial by Ink and Innuendo: The Military and Political Assault on George G. Meade After Gettysburg (Little Falls Press, 2021)".

While I see the release year is 2021, wondering if you have additional information.

An anticipated release date?
Available only through Little Falls Press or also available in online stores such as Amazon or Barnes & Noble?
Available in Hardcover, or Paperback, and/or electronically?

Have done an internet search on the full "Trial by Ink" title and see no release information though there is the Little Falls Press Facebook page but I didn't see anything there. Though this may be due to my internet and Facebook search skills.

Any information would be appreciated.

Thank you sir.
 
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Paging @Eric Wittenberg

I've just finished reading "The Summer of '63: Gettysburg Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War (Emerging Civil War Anniversary Series)" published by Savas Beatie.

Found this to be a very good book and contribution to Gettysburg literature and enjoyed it very much.

Reading your second contribution to this book, a chapter titled "Civil War Witch Hunt: George Gordon Meade, the Retreat From Gettysburg, and the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War". I'm very interested in this particular aspect of the ACW. There is a reference to a forthcoming book which you have written as an expansion of this chapter; titled "Trial by Ink and Innuendo: The Military and Political Assault on George G. Meade After Gettysburg (Little Falls Press, 2021)".

While I see the release year is 2021, wondering if you have additional information.

An anticipated release date?
Available only through Little Falls Press or also available in online stores such as Amazon or Barnes & Noble?
Available in Hardcover, or Paperback, and/or electronically?

Have done an internet search on the full "Trial by Ink" title and see no release information though there is the Little Falls Press Facebook page but I didn't see anything there. Though this may be due to my internet and Facebook search skills.

Any information would be appreciated.

Thank you sir.
So, long story....

As noted in the ECW book, this book project has its roots in a series of blog posts that I did in 2015 (which also appeared on my blog). As was often the case with various ideas that I cook up, the blog posts were primarily intended to flesh out my thoughts/ideas/analysis of these things. That was all that I had intended to do with them, though.

However, the blog posts were extremely popular, so Ted Savas asked me to compile them and write an introduction for them, and also to footnote them for a short book, which I agreed to do. I put the time into it, and when I submitted it, Kris White of ECW suggested to me that I turn this into a full-length book, that there was nothing like it out there, and that it would be a valuable contribution to the existing body of literature. At the time, there was indeed nothing else out there, so I agreed.

I spent months turning those blog posts into a book manuscript of more than 200,000 words. It was huge, and I acknowledged that it was too long and needed to be cut down from day one. However, being too close to the project, other than one particular chapter that included excerpts of the testimony to the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, I was out of ideas for how best to cut it down without eviscerating it. For reasons that I won't go into, it languished for far longer than I wanted--the better part of five years--and other books came out, including Kent Brown's recent book, stealing much of my thunder.

This winter, I finally told Savas-Beatie that I was taking it elsewhere, and I took it to Little Falls Press, as indicated. The decision to take it there was motivated by a number of factors, not the least of which was that it would finally get published this year--it would have languished for another year at Savas-Beatie, and six years was just too long for me to swallow. The manuscript has been fully edited (and cut down) and is in the layout phase now--I expect to see page galleys soon. My expectation is that it will be published this year. Leon Reed, the publisher at Little Falls, should have data about it available once he finishes laying it out.

I am extremely proud of this work, which I consider to be my magnum opus. As I said, I knew all along that it was too long, and I knew that significant paring would have to be done. I'm looking forward to seeing what Leon has done with it.

The project includes everything discussed in those blog posts, as well as a tactical and strategic discussion of Meade's performance as army commander until Grant came east in 1864, and the very specific rebuttal of the JCCW's findings. The maps--there are about 25--were done by my friend Dave Roth, the former publisher and cartographer of Blue & Gray magazine. If you liked the maps in the magazine, you will love these. The book will be available in hard cover for sure, and probably softcover after a time. I expect it to be available on Amazon, as well as on the Little Falls website and on my website as well. I don't know about Barnes & Noble--I will have to find out about that. I believe it will also be available in an electronic version. I will provide further information as it becomes available.

I hope that answers your question. Thank you for asking, and thank you for your interest. I'm grateful.
 
So, long story....

As noted in the ECW book, this book project has its roots in a series of blog posts that I did in 2015 (which also appeared on my blog). As was often the case with various ideas that I cook up, the blog posts were primarily intended to flesh out my thoughts/ideas/analysis of these things. That was all that I had intended to do with them, though.

However, the blog posts were extremely popular, so Ted Savas asked me to compile them and write an introduction for them, and also to footnote them for a short book, which I agreed to do. I put the time into it, and when I submitted it, Kris White of ECW suggested to me that I turn this into a full-length book, that there was nothing like it out there, and that it would be a valuable contribution to the existing body of literature. At the time, there was indeed nothing else out there, so I agreed.

I spent months turning those blog posts into a book manuscript of more than 200,000 words. It was huge, and I acknowledged that it was too long and needed to be cut down from day one. However, being too close to the project, other than one particular chapter that included excerpts of the testimony to the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, I was out of ideas for how best to cut it down without eviscerating it. For reasons that I won't go into, it languished for far longer than I wanted--the better part of five years--and other books came out, including Kent Brown's recent book, stealing much of my thunder.

This winter, I finally told Savas-Beatie that I was taking it elsewhere, and I took it to Little Falls Press, as indicated. The decision to take it there was motivated by a number of factors, not the least of which was that it would finally get published this year--it would have languished for another year at Savas-Beatie, and six years was just too long for me to swallow. The manuscript has been fully edited (and cut down) and is in the layout phase now--I expect to see page galleys soon. My expectation is that it will be published this year. Leon Reed, the publisher at Little Falls, should have data about it available once he finishes laying it out.

I am extremely proud of this work, which I consider to be my magnum opus. As I said, I knew all along that it was too long, and I knew that significant paring would have to be done. I'm looking forward to seeing what Leon has done with it.

The project includes everything discussed in those blog posts, as well as a tactical and strategic discussion of Meade's performance as army commander until Grant came east in 1864, and the very specific rebuttal of the JCCW's findings. The maps--there are about 25--were done by my friend Dave Roth, the former publisher and cartographer of Blue & Gray magazine. If you liked the maps in the magazine, you will love these. The book will be available in hard cover for sure, and probably softcover after a time. I expect it to be available on Amazon, as well as on the Little Falls website and on my website as well. I don't know about Barnes & Noble--I will have to find out about that. I believe it will also be available in an electronic version. I will provide further information as it becomes available.

I hope that answers your question. Thank you for asking, and thank you for your interest. I'm grateful.
Thank you so much for your interesting and detailed response - yes sir, you've answered my questions.

I've not written a book but recognizing that a book is too long and having to cut out detail has to be one of the most difficult phases of authorship. Particularly when you know there's a segment of readers that would love all the additional information which is being left on "the cutting room floor".

If this is the same or higher quality compared to your other writings it will be a "must have" and reflect outstanding scholarship.

I'll be "first in line" to purchase when released.
 
Looking forward to it, Eric. Brown's book is excellent, and I know there's at least one other Meade bio coming out sometime soon, but I can't imagine those authors have stolen all your thunder.

Besides, if this is indeed your magnum opus it will be well worth reading -- your other opuses (those that I've read anyway) are always interesting, informative, and great reads.
 
Thank you so much for your interesting and detailed response - yes sir, you've answered my questions.

I've not written a book but recognizing that a book is too long and having to cut out detail has to be one of the most difficult phases of authorship. Particularly when you know there's a segment of readers that would love all the additional information which is being left on "the cutting room floor".

If this is the same or higher quality compared to your other writings it will be a "must have" and reflect outstanding scholarship.

I'll be "first in line" to purchase when released.
Thank you--I appreciate that.

It's not easy to cut your baby, but at nearly 1000 pages in length, it wasn't rocket science to realize that a paring knife was needed. That's where a skillful editor makes all the difference in the world.

I often say that a good editor can make a mediocre manuscript good and a good one great. It's a true statement.
 
Looking forward to it, Eric. Brown's book is excellent, and I know there's at least one other Meade bio coming out sometime soon, but I can't imagine those authors have stolen all your thunder.

Besides, if this is indeed your magnum opus it will be well worth reading -- your other opuses (those that I've read anyway) are always interesting, informative, and great reads.
My friends Jennifer Murray and Chris Stowe are both working on their own Meade books. Chris' is a full-length bio, while Jen's book is a military biography. We've all shared information freely amongst ourselves, and I expect those two books to be worthy additions to the body of knowledge by two academic historians for whom I have the utmost respect.

Thanks for the kind words, Andy. They're much appreciated.
 
While there have been a handful of past writings about George Meade most notably "Meade of Gettysburg" by Freeman Cleaves it is refreshing to see more recent scholarship, such as "Searching for George Gordon Meade" by Tom Huntington; "Meade The Price of Command" by John G. Selby; "Meade at Gettysburg" by Kent Masterson Brown; "The Union Generals Speak - The Meade Hearings on the Battle of Gettysburg" by Bill Hyde, and the fictional work "Without Warning: The Saga of Gettysburg, a Reluctant Union Hero and the Men he Inspired" by Terry C. Pierce.

Nice to hear that two additional works by your friends concerning George G. Meade are forthcoming!

For whatever the reason, be it the media blackout of his name, the fact he was a Democrat, the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War investigation, the presence of Grant in the Army of the Potomac, or some other reason I feel as though he's not gotten the respect he deserves in American Military History.
 
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For whatever the reason, be it the media blackout of his name, the fact he was a Democrat, the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War investigation, the presence of Grant in the Army of the Potomac, or some other reason I feel as though he's not gotten the respect he deserves in American Military History.
And that is a major component of the reasons why I elected to write this book was to attempt to correct just that situation.
 
Looking forward to it, Eric. Brown's book is excellent, and I know there's at least one other Meade bio coming out sometime soon, but I can't imagine those authors have stolen all your thunder.

Besides, if this is indeed your magnum opus it will be well worth reading -- your other opuses (those that I've read anyway) are always interesting, informative, and great reads.
I think you're right about the "thunder". For anybody who's "on the fence" because of the Brown book, Eric's description of the book makes it fundamentally different from Brown's. I've skimmed the latter so far, and it's very tightly tied to Meade's actions at Gettysburg. The Wittenberg book would have a much broader focus on Meade's generalship during the battle and afterwards, and the ensuing criticism by the Joint Committee, fueled by the likes of Sickles. In other words, owning Brown should in no sense affect the decision to get this one. For those of us who subscribed to Blue & Gray, 25 Roth maps is an added incentive.
 
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