What Drew You?

[Mark F. Jenkins]

We here are all fascinated by the momentous events of 1861-1865... and many of us have strong opinions about how the country got to the state it was in circa 1861... but how did our members get here? What first sparked your interest, if you can name a specific event, person, book, or something else?

For me, it was when my mom checked a book out of the library for me to read. She wanted to interest me in American history, and thought it might be just the thing. The book was William C. Davis's Duel Between the First Ironclads, about the classic Monitor/Virginia battle. I went on to read other things about the Civil War after that (and Trick or Treated as a Union private one year, with a historically-inaccurate plastic Winchester), but that was my first encounter, and a memorable one. Still one of my favorite books.

 

[tmh10]

Always , even in school interested in history, but the PBS Civil War series jumped started me. It faded for a while and then a freind and co worker was a reenactor and I started back into it. After he passed on, I got dedicated about the study of the Civil War.

 

[jessgettysburg1863]

We here are all fascinated by the momentous events of 1861-1865... and many of us have strong opinions about how the country got to the state it was in circa 1861... but how did our members get here? What first sparked your interest, if you can name a specific event, person, book, or something else?

For me, it was when my mom checked a book out of the library for me to read. She wanted to interest me in American history, and thought it might be just the thing. The book was William C. Davis's Duel Between the First Ironclads, about the classic Monitor/Virginia battle. I went on to read other things about the Civil War after that (and Trick or Treated as a Union private one year, with a historically-inaccurate plastic Winchester), but that was my first encounter, and a memorable one. Still one of my favorite books.

When l first watched the movie "Gettysburg" in 1995 l was hooked.

 

[rpkennedy]

My father is a Civil War buff and I remember spending many hours when I was a kid with the Time-Life Civil War series (I called them the "grey books" and it's funny because that's what my oldest daughter calls them now). The first books I remember buying on my own were the introductory books for Antietam and Gettysburg published in the '80s. I've just always been fascinated by the war and then the geneological aspect has been a bonus much more recently.

R

 

[TerryB]

I read everything I could get my hands on about the "wah" when I was in junior high and on, having heard all kinds of family lore handed down over the generations. I read all the books about Forrest and anything else about Stuart, Mosby, et al. I had been told we had ancestors who were officers with Forrest. I even inherited photo albums, obits and clippings from newspapers of the time that had been languishing in old trunks and various other places. All that stuff formed the basis of my subsequent genealogical research, all made possible by the internet.

 

[kholland]

I got Charles Flato and Bruce Catton's "Golden Book of the Civil War" when I was around ten years old. What fascinated me were the illustrations accompanying the story which showed the battle from a birds eye view with lines of battle and key terrain and buildings. Then my cub scout troop took a train trip from Washington DC to Harpers Ferry (which was neat in itself) and that got me more interested . I've had peaks and valleys of interest over the years but the last 2 decades or so has been strong.

 

[FourLeafClover]

Having read "Ben Hur" a few years before, and been greatly impressed by it's style. Not to mention the quality. It contains the greatest opening chapters concerning the journey of the Magi, and the birth of the infant Jesus. I recommend it to many, but few I think can break away from the movie version. And, as you all know here. The book is so much more.
I then started seeing a student who was studying history here in London. Part of her required reading was " Battle Cry of Freedom". Not being up to speed on the events of the ACW. I decided to pick up the book and give it a look. There was a familiar name "Lew Wallace". This guy I knew. Of course I finished the book. (my student friend moved on to 'Empire in the middle ages 1150-1309' , I stayed with American Literature).
I knew a little of the lives of Poe, Twain, Hemingway, Melville, Fitzgerald. But next to nothing about Wallace. I found a fascinating man, who had moved from law practice, to soldiering seamlessly. Raising troops in his home state, Indiana, to fight in Mexico. An adventurer who was not content to sit behind a desk.
The civil war brought him promotion to the public eye, as Brig. Gen. of the 11th Indiana infantry. He had success in campaigns up to Shiloh. Where a contentious event left a stain upon his character. I won't go into detail here. But I do have an opinion of that episode. He and his troops had other battles post Shiloh. Performing with great bravery and effectiveness.
His background in law saw him involved with high profile legal events towards wars end. Notably, the trial of the Lincoln assassination conspirators, and the trial of Henry Wirz.
After the war he served in the Mexican army, fighting the French. Then after some political posts back in the U.S. became governor of New Mexico. During which time he famously encountered, among others "Billy the Kid". The circumstances behind this one event, overshadow the success Wallace had in cleaning up the lawless state during what was known as "The Lincoln County War". Long running feuds were brought under control, and law was brought to New Mexico.
He then went on to become U.S. Minister to the Ottoman Empire. Travelling extensively through Turkey, and the East. It was during this time he penned "Ben Hur".
Returning to his Indiana home, he passed his time playing the violin, rather well by all accounts. He not only played, he made them from scratch.
An intelligent, and talented American. I feel he has been in many events given a bad deal. He was not 100%, angelic and had his human frailties.
But in summary. He was the key to my interest in the ACW. and finding this site.

 

[Jayboss1]

Being born and raised in Kansas near the Missouri state line, growing up I wasn't aware the war was over. If you live somewhere that was involved it helps to spark an interest I think.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

I had to think about this again-the CW permeated the family history, but I'm the only one of my generation to get so hooked. I saw phrases written on yellowed paper like 'Killed at Pittsburg Landing', 'Killed at Gettysburg', knew there were some other things I just took for granted. It just got worse with the ease of the internet making research available. It wasn't until a lot of years later it sunk in I didn't KNOW anything but that just made it worse, too because then you just have to go find this stuff out! Or better, depending on whose point of view one is speaking of-mine or the person I'm annoying with CW family factoids at the time.

I got here as a member through browsing forums for awhile. This one seemed like a good bet for one which had an awful lot of really, really good information plus members who probably would not be pompous about new people who lack it. I was right.

 

[shanniereb]

Genealogy, basically. Then the natural progression=reenacting, researching, and now talking about it

 

[Rob9641]

I was looking for information on something - I can't remember what it was right now - and my internet search led me here. So I stayed. One of the things I like about this site is that we sort out and argue about the quality of the scholarship that's out there. That doesn't happen everywhere. Hearing the pros and cons about any specific scholar's efforts helps me decide what weight I put on what the scholar says.

 

[Pvt.Shattuck]

During the CW Centennial, I was age 7-11, very impressionable. Our family got Life magazine which published Brady images of the war. I was fascinated and read everything I could find in the library. I had a set of Blue and Gray toy soldiers. Of course sometimes they were drafted for WWII battles and occasionally they fought Indians as well. If I remember, the set came with a plastic Burnside's Bridge. It was only many years later that I discovered that my ancestor fought under Burnside at Fredericksburg and was with him on the Mud March.

 

[DixieRifles]

Good question, which makes me have to think back 50 years.

My interest must have started with trips to Vicksburg Battlefield. As a kid, we were always "playing Army" and Cowboys and Indians. But to play on those bluffs around those hughe Columbiads must have sparked an interest. I also became fascinated with the old rifles that they used. I eventually had me a set of plastic Civil War toy soldiers that were quite animated. And believe it or not, I bought a toy rifle that you rammed a cork ball down the barrel and shot it out with a cap.

The interest in black powder guns lead me to build a full scale model of the Colt 1851. When my older brother left his replica 1851 Navy at home while serving in Thailand, I just could not stop myself from shooting it. I started from scratch with trying to figure out where to get bullets, how to mold lead, how to clear a plugged nipple and all the rest that comes with operating that gun safely.

I also got started on the TIME-LIFE books with the first one on Gettysburg for $5. I still have that one but stopped the rest so that I could selectively buy the ones on the Western Theater.

 

[RobertP]

Hard to say exactly but growing up in Jackson, Miss. in the 50's it was just always around. Dad was raised in his Confederate veteran grandfather's house so there were great stories from my grandmother about what her father told her. There was memorabilia all around and when we visited in summers there were the Sunday visits to the family cemetery plot where his Company and Regiment are inscribed below his name. There were trips to Vicksburg and the long Boy Scout hike through the Park, the picnics in Battlefield Park in Jackson, the 1961 Centennial Parade down Capitol Street -- school let out that day! The neighborhood board games -- I remember playing Avalon Hill's Gettysburg many times, always the Reb side, a good friend with a Yankee Mom would provide the opposition. But I never studied the CW outside of what we got in school. I clearly remember being more interested in the Revolutionary War.

Mostly I was a WWII buff, everybody's father was a Vet it seemed, and it was recent history. Dad never talked much about it but had won a bronze star at Bougainville as a Naval FO and photo interpreter attached to a Marine unit; and the last year of the war he was an instructor at Annapolis where he taught aerial photo interpretation. He never even picked up his medal, but I have the local newspaper clipping with the citation. We always had his pics of burned out tanks and bombed Japanese ships and such as well as his silk maps of the south Pacific around to look at. Dad would have been 99 last week.

Chronologically, cars, girls, college, career, marriage and family took up most of the next 30 years and I didn't think much about war, except how not to get killed in Vietnam. It was sometime in my mid-40's that I began to drift back to the CW memories and became interested again. I was fascinated by the bravery of those men, using Napoleonic tactics against rifles weapons, and also the hardships that the poorly provisioned Confederate endured. I remember wanting to know if I would have had the courage and resolve to have done it also. It was a mid-life question, and after nearly twenty years of thinking about it I still don't have the answer.

 

[carson_reb]

My college history instructor. What a neat lady: A tiny, petite, red-headed stick of dynamite who taught her subjects matter-of-factly and did not take any **** from misbehaving college kids.

She taught a course on the history of the American Civil War. We watched Gettysburg and Glory. I did my class presentation on Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg. I absolutely loved researching that event, recreating the strategy, the movements and the positions.

I'm less of a military historian now (I prefer sociopolitical history) but that is what lit my fire about the ACW.

 

[pattyjo]

Actually for me it was the m ovie "Gettysburg" I had also watched the series by Ken Burns then I found myself watching it again and again, then I started reading everything I could find. I just found it to be endlessly facinating

 

[PartywithArty]

Im not sure.The spark has always been there for me.Every sine I an remember,ive loved history.When I was a kid i collected old bottles.I used to walk the fields after we plowed them to look for metal and glass. During the civil war,main wagon road rosses my property so i always wlked it hoping to find things. I was intrested in everything from George Washington to what my dad done when he was in high shool.I just love the past in general. My love for the war came when I took a trip with my cousin to Fort Pillow (20 miles from my house) My granddad was one of the ontrators who ult the museums there so my cousins wanted to see his work,i just wanted to see the fort..lolNow im a grown man with a wife and a baby,and I still love history,i love learning about every war the U.S. has been envolved in.I love loal history,I have a stange attahment to Virginia Millitary Institute (VMI),I love old cars,tractors and garden tractors.I love touring plantations. I live on whats let of my ancestors. I love the antebellum period. The lothes,the homes,the way of life, I just love history. I dont know why,but I do.

 

[GELongstreet]

Movie Gettysburg (watched it in 1999 I think) - Longstreet - Battle of Gettysburg - Longstreet - Civil War

 

[matthew mckeon]

When I was very little, I got a "How and Why" book about the Civil War. It had two cavalrymen, a smiling Confederate in a tan uniform and hat with its brim turned up, Australian bush style, sporting a handlebar mustache later to be featured in gay bars in the 1970s. The Yankee had a kepi pulled down and looked downright grumpy. I can still see the various illustrations in my mind. We got a subscription to "American Heritage" which used to come in a hardcover version. There was a feature on an artist who followed the Army of the Cumberland in increasingly surreal style. I remember trying to copy the sketches.

Went on a family vacation to Gettysburg when I was ten or so. My fate was sealed.

 

[Red Harvest]

Probably a set of illustrated U.S. history books that we had in my grandmother's house when I lived there. Don't even recall the name now but I was fascinated by them before I could even read. My family was mainly into Wild West history/horses so I was more familiar with the plains forts. I had a Fort Apache set with cavalry and Indians, but the cavalry did double duty as Union soldiers vs. cowboys serving as Confederates. Later I got a Blue and Gray set. With the expanded numbers I could recreate the battle lines and flanking moves found in various books.