my journey as a civil war novel writer

  I want to start with how astonished I was how much material was in this book that was completely new to me. And I have most of the biographies written about Longstreet in my possession. Most books don’t cover the post war period at all but some of the more modern ones do, but none go into the detail that this book does. So kudo’s for all the research done and the facts uncovered. The good Most of the book was devoted to the pre and post war period of Longstreet’s life. I found it an intriguing read. What surprised me most were the detailed accounts of the slaves Longstreet owned before and during the war. Especially as there had been no proof of this before as far as I know. And the fact that Longstreet was an ardent believer in slavery before the war. As well as some speeches and actions during the war. To be honest that part shocked me a little bit. But it makes his change after the war even bigger. What makes a man who felt at home in a world were slavery was normal an...

  The holiday was over too soon. That last saturday I decided to just rest and lay on bed at Koen's aunt and uncle. We were going to leave for the airport after lunch and I was dreading the long journey. I never sleep on planes and I did not expect to sleep this time so any rest I could get now would help. Boarding in Philadelphia was smooth and we were lucky this time. The plane was nearly sold out but we had an empty chair in between. We had eaten something at the airport. It was not very big so it was hard to find something that was not absolutely crowded. If I was the airline I would do things differently on a flight like this. It is only a 7 hour flight to London. and it took nearly two hours before they served us a meal. So by the time that was finished it was nearly 3 hours into the journey and very little time go get some sleep. I don't think many people managed it. An hour before landing they wake you up already. I would not serve a full meal, because I know the staff...

  A very early start this morning as we had to drive all the way down to the end of the Shendandoah valley for the nearest car rental spot in the direction we were going today. It was at a very small regional airport. The people already expected us and it was no trouble getting another car. Same make and model just another colour. and within half an hour we were on our way again. Two days earlier we had seen there was another civil war musuem in New Market and we decided to just have a look at it.  This turned out to be an absolute find and the kind of museum I love. Basically it was one person's collection and as many objects as possible we crammed into display cases. There was so much to look at! It ranged from, the revolution, civil war, Native american artifacts, WW II and asian art. It was astounding that one person was able to collect all this and had the money to collect it all. It must have been in a time before collectors paid the real big bucks and some of the stuff ...

  You can't do Gettysburg well in one day at least I can't. And I also wanted to spend some time in the town itself, so today we had an early start for a second day in and around Gettysburg. We spent most of the morning on the battlefield doing the bits we had missed out on the first day. Cemetery hill and the remainder of confederate avenue. I just love being amongst the statues and other memorials of the past. In fact I think I could spend weeks or months here just exploring or sitting quietly. Most of my friends do not understand this. I already often get the same questions. Are you going to do those battlefields again? You have seen them by now.  We took a break for lunch. A holiday around Gettysburg is not complete for me without at least one meal at the Dobbin house. I love the atmosphere and they serve great food. It is one of the few times I splash out on food. But going into town was a bit of a dissapointment for me. A lot of my favorite shops were just gone. The...

We almost made it a day without doing anything civil war related. 😉 Koen is much more into nature than I am and he loves photography, so we decided to do the Skyline drive today through the Shenandoah Valley. So today I am going to use his photos. Again not something I had never done before, my first time here was October 1993. Maybe that spoilt it for me for coming back in any other time of year as however beautiful it is, I was underwhelmed. I remembered the spectacular fall colours of that first visit. And I have to admit that I am someone who usually likes my nature only if it is combined with history. Except for the polders and the beach.  The skyline drive is driving at a slow pace over the tops of the Shenandoah mountains. Koen was really hoping we would spot some wild animals and we were lucky although it was not the bears he had wanted. Secretly I did not mind that so much. We saw many birds and on the last stretch a wild deer crossing the road. Around here they are not ...

  One of the longest drives of the holiday today. And it would prove to be another very warm day as well.  We had no problems driving to Fredricksburg and parking at the visitors centre. This is a small one with really no more than a small shop attached. From here you are right at the edge of Longstreet's lines. It is such a pity that the fields in front of the earth works are full of houses. It does not give you an idea of how difficult it must have been for the Union troops to cover that ground. I do find it a little surprising as well. Like imagine if there was a whole section of houses on the fields of Pickett's charge. And honestly I don't think I would ever buy a house on ground that so many people died on. Call me superstitious but it would not sit well with me. It is still nice to walk around and to see the statue of St. Kirkland which signifies that even in battle there can be kindness. Next we drove to Chatham manor. It is worth a visit if only for the views. This...

For the Sunday we were looking for something that was at least in the right direction when Jeremy would have to drive the nearly 5 hours back to New York state. So Antietam was an obvious choice. And only 20 minutes to drive from our appartment. It's a nice drive coming through Shepardstown as well. I really love these old towns with the wooden houses that you see in this part of the country. Sharpsburg is like this as well. It always strikes me what a difference there is between Sharpsburg and Gettysburg as Sharpsburg is not touristy at all. There is hardly even a place to get lunch there. And no or nearly no souvenir shops at all. They were renovating the visitor centre at the battlefield and had built a temporary one. To our surprise you now have to pay for the battlefield. This is the first time ever I have come across it and I do wonder what would have happened if we did not as nobody checked us and some of the battlefield is on open roads. Antietam was the bloodiest one day ...

  The first friday took us to Frederick in Maryland, a town I passed by many times but had never taken the time to visit. We were going to meet our friend Jeremy here who was coming down from New York state to spend the weekend with us.  As Frederick was on his way down it made sense to spend some time there. Frederick houses the national museum of civil war medicine so yes another day with a civil war link. We spend few hours there and the volunteer staff were very knowledgeable and willing to share their knowledge of civil war medicine which made for a very enjoyable experience there. For once we came home early and had time to play some games in the evening. Saturday was a day of longer driving heading back in the direction of Washington. It was going to be the hottest day of our holiday, our area was expecting some rain and Washington was not which made it the choice of the day. Google maps must have been feeling the heat as well as it took us on a very interesting dr...

Thursday was another lovely sunny day and another day we would do a lot of miles. Going all the way to the outskirts of Washington D.C. to Manassas. One of the battlefields I have visited more than once in the past. I usually flew in to Dulles and Manassas is right on the doorstep so this was usually our last stop for half a day. First Manassas [or first Bull run] is one of the smaller battefields. One of the few that you can actually walk. We started with the ranger talk outside which consists of Henry Hill and the Henry house with some general information about the start of the war and this battle. In those early days they thought that this would be the battle to end the war from both sides spectators had come to watch the ultimate battle. That day in July 1861 would change expectations on the war forever. It is always good to walk the actual ground of a battle. The many hills mentioned in books give it away, it is not flat. But neither are this high hills. The terrain kind of meande...

This is going to be a short entry. That Wednesday happened to be the only day during the holiday that I did not feel my best. And I count my blessings that it was only one day. It does mean that I don't do evenings anymore. After coming home and eating something I head straight to bed to rest up for the next day. And after coming home from holiday I need time to recuperate as well. Yet seeing fun things on holiday is extremely good for my mental health. Today we had Harper's Ferry on the program. A good choice as it was really round the corner from where we were and I am not the world's biggest fan of the place. I had been there before in 1994 and had actually skipped it on another trip when I happened to have a really bad day. Today my headache was not so bad that I had to skip as long as we took it easy. I can't even explain why I don't like Harper's ferry. The buildings are pretty and the nature surrounding it is stunning. And there is certainly plenty of his...

  Finally I was going back to Gettysburg. It had been nearly ten years. The last time had been during the 150th anniversary. That was cool. We walked Pickett's charge at the exact same time at the same day 150 years later and we saw a lot of the reenactments. For many years if I went to Gettysburg during the anniversary. It was great fun but it had some drawbacks as well. More expensive The town would be absolutely crowded So would the battlefield The humid heat of July could get to me In that regard a May visit was much nicer. We headed out in the morning and it was about 75 minutes drive from the airbnb to Gettysburg where we arrived around ten. As Koen had never been we decided to do the visitor centre first. I may not be making friends here but I am not a big fan of the new visitor centre. True, it gives a good overview of the whole civil war and the battle and it looks really slick. There lies the rub. I don't like slick. I much prefer the old one with its shelves full of ...

Monday morning we started the journey to what would be our travel hub for the next 10 days. But with one stop in between. Very good friends of mine live in Wilmington, Delaware and that was on the way for us with only a small detour. Google maps took us through the lovely countryside around Philadelphia to make it a very nice tour to Wilmington. I have known Larry and Louise for thirty years. When my passion for the civil war really started and I became interested in general Longstreet, I joined the Longstreet society. At the time they were looking for someone in the Netherlands who could try to find out in local archives if they could link were the general's dutch ancestors had come from. Mind you this was in the time that the internet had not been around long and was not the powerful search engine it is now. I asked where I could get some more information and they put me in touch with Larry in Louise. As it happens they would be visiting the Netherlands shortly so the first time ...

Thanks to the time difference we still woke up pretty early on the Sunday morning and much refreshed. My friend's aunt and uncle live in Berwyn which is just outside of Philadelphia and as we found out around the corner from Valley Forge. So why not cram in another bit of history today? Never mind it was supposed to be a day of rest and not doing much. As you will gather, that is not what I do on holidays. Holidays are for seeing as much as you can and crashing and resting is for later. In the morning we picked up our rental car at a local avis branch. [cheaper than doing it on the airport] Of course they did not have the car we selected in stock. We went for the cheapest smallest one and since americans don't really do small cars we were stuck with a Ford edge instead of fiesta. First they tried to give us a pick up truck but as that has no luggage space whatsoever we said no to it. Well legroom would not be a problem in our edge. 😉 First we had to get phones fixed. Modern re...

It had been ten years since my last visit to the US. Although I never see myself permanently living in another country there are a few places on earth that I really miss when I am not there. It doesn't happen often that I find a place like that and the feeling is not always consistent but it always comes back. And it makes me so happy to return to them. One such place is Glastonbury in the UK and another is Gettysburg in the US. There is something about Gettysburg that makes me feel at home. Weird for a battlefield I know. I also still consider myself a pacifist as well. Yet that place feels like home. It took a bit of planning and saving for this trip. My financial state is not what it was a few years ago and these days I have to make choices on what I do. I saved up for this trip for a few years and decided it was doable in the off season. May turned out to be perfect. Lovely weather but not the high prices for airplane and airb&b that you can get in July or August. Also imp...