Any Civil War buffs out there? - New England Patriots Forums

ironwasp · 02-21-2007, 11:08 AM

I know all you New Englanders are famed for your Revolutionary War exploits when you kicked the brave Redcoats and good King George out of the 13 States.

But I wondered if anyone out there shared my enthusiasm and interest in the Civil War?

I got interested a few years back - can't remember how anymore - and have been an enthusiastic student of the War ever since. Because I'm in England most of that has to be done through reading, website and watching films etc (and fortunately there is a great canon out there from Catton to Shaara to Foote etc).

But because I have family in the Maryland/Virginia area I've also been able to get to a few sites, starting with Gettysburg and Antietam a couple of years ago, as well as a tiny one called Monocacy where the Confederates made a last desperate throw of the dice with an attack on Washington.

Can anyone point me in the direction of interesting books, novels and Civil War films? Anyone have particularly interesting stories to tell?

milwaukeebeers44 · 02-21-2007, 11:34 AM

I have an interest, but not as deep as yours. Mine developed in my move from New England to Atlanta. . .I actually live about 3 miles from Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield and frequent its recreational trails. I've also been to Antietam.

My husband is the major military history buff, but we've both taken care to learn a lot about the goings on in our area.

ironwasp · 02-21-2007, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by milwaukeebeers44

I have an interest, but not as deep as yours. Mine developed in my move from New England to Atlanta. . .I actually live about 3 miles from Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield and frequent its recreational trails. I've also been to Antietam.

My husband is the major military history buff, but we've both taken care to learn a lot about the goings on in our area.

I don't know a lot about Kennesaw, I'll have to look it up.

I have an aunt in Georgia, I think she lives in a town called Troy, which she tells me is near Andersonville, which I'd like to visit.

everlong · 02-21-2007, 11:51 AM

I'm a WWII buff although I have done some reading on the Civil War but it's been a long time.

A guy I used to work with drives a lot for work and does audio books and he's a serious WWII. He bought these and said they were awesome and made his drive much more palatable.

http://www.amazon.com/Civil-War-Narr.../dp/0394749138

I gave the book link since it was easier.

Since you started the topic perhaps you can post some of the stuff that got you into it. Although I've read stuff on the Independence, 1812, WW1, Korea and Vietnam, I always end up back at WWII.

ironwasp · 02-21-2007, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by everlong

Since you started the topic perhaps you can post some of the stuff that got you into it. Although I've read stuff on the Independence, 1812, WW1, Korea and Vietnam, I always end up back at WWII.

I got interested quite a while ago and then left it for a while. What probably renewed my interest was a fictional series by historical writer Bernard Cornwell (who is most famous for writing a series about Sharpe, a Napoleonic era rifleman) which follows the career of a Massachusetts boy who ends up in the Confederate army. The Starbuck Chronicles. They are pretty good in themselves but really just posed a lot of questions for me that fiction could not then answer.

After that I went history mad for a bit. Bruce Catton's centennial history is a masterful account of the War, in both its causes and its prosecution.

The Shaara books: Gods and Generals and The Killer Angels (the latter particularly) are excellent.

A historian called Stephen Sears also excels at giving detailed but humane and emotional accounts of the battles. I have read his Gettysburg and A Landscape Turned Red (Antietam). Chancellorsville is on my list for next.

I've read a little Shelby Foote, but not as much as I'd like to. I might leave your recommendation until I've retired as it needs a serious investment in time!!

everlong · 02-21-2007, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ironwasp

I've read a little Shelby Foote, but not as much as I'd like to. I might leave your recommendation until I've retired as it needs a serious investment in time!!

Having two kids I seriously understand the time investment part. Half the time I'm too tired to do any serious reading but thanks for the links I'll try and read at least one although it may have to be on vacation so I have something left in the tank after 8 PM.

ironwasp · 02-21-2007, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by everlong

Having two kids I seriously understand the time investment part. Half the time I'm too tired to do any serious reading but thanks for the links I'll try and read at least one although it may have to be on vacation so I have something left in the tank after 8 PM.

If I had to recommend one of those, on the fiction side it would be The Killer Angels. It is fascinating and a relatively easygoing read.

everlong · 02-21-2007, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ironwasp

If I had to recommend one of those, on the fiction side it would be The Killer Angels. It is fascinating and a relatively easygoing read.

Excellent thanks for the heads up. If you ever decide to go the WWII route I have a ton of recommendations for battles, campaigns, and biographies. The biographies I've read a lot on both sides and some of the other side is very fascinating.

Thanks again.

ironwasp · 02-22-2007, 03:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by everlong

Excellent thanks for the heads up. If you ever decide to go the WWII route I have a ton of recommendations for battles, campaigns, and biographies. The biographies I've read a lot on both sides and some of the other side is very fascinating.

Thanks again.

Not at all.

WWII is a strange one for me. I've done a great deal of reading about WWI, literature, history, biography etc. It is a war that still fascinates here and undergoes periodic revivals - at the moment we have a lot every anniversary of it because there are only something like 8 veterans still alive (guys that signed up illegally at 14/15 towards the end of the war.) Next year is the 90th anniversary of the Armistice, and I suspect that will be a big deal.

But WWII we sort of grew up with here - even for relative youngsters like me who were born in 1971 - and it coloured so many attitudes we (as a nation) have towards the world and towards our partners in Europe etc. So I have visited the beaches and battlefields of northern France and studied it quite a bit as a child and as a student and read some biography later on. (I have been, on and off, reading Churchill's first volume, The Gathering Storm).

But, perhaps because I feel more familiar with it, feel that I have more of an understanding of that war, it has never quite captured my interest or imagination in quite the same way. I daresay it will happen.

Supposing I did start tomorrow, what might you recommend as a good place to begin?

Cheers

***Mike the Brit*** · 02-22-2007, 04:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ironwasp

Not at all.

WWII is a strange one for me. I've done a great deal of reading about WWI, literature, history, biography etc. It is a war that still fascinates here and undergoes periodic revivals - at the moment we have a lot every anniversary of it because there are only something like 8 veterans still alive (guys that signed up illegally at 14/15 towards the end of the war.) Next year is the 90th anniversary of the Armistice, and I suspect that will be a big deal.

But WWII we sort of grew up with here - even for relative youngsters like me who were born in 1971 - and it coloured so many attitudes we (as a nation) have towards the world and towards our partners in Europe etc. So I have visited the beaches and battlefields of northern France and studied it quite a bit as a child and as a student and read some biography later on. (I have been, on and off, reading Churchill's first volume, The Gathering Storm).

But, perhaps because I feel more familiar with it, feel that I have more of an understanding of that war, it has never quite captured my interest or imagination in quite the same way. I daresay it will happen.

Supposing I did start tomorrow, what might you recommend as a good place to begin?

Cheers

Being a bit older than you, it holds for me even more. What's more, I think it's hard to just think about the military side of World War II, as many war history buffs do, when it was so patently a struggle between good and evil that encompassed the whole of society.

Books apart, there is a huge amount of excellent visual material. I was brought up on a programme that ran in the U.K. in the 1960s called All Our Yesterdays that reproduced the cinema newsreels of 25 years previously, so you could follow the war through the 1960s week by week. Then there was the marvellous ITV series that is still available on video The World at War. More recently, BBC2 had a stunning series called The Nazis: a Warning from History from which I learned a lot.

[By the way, I'm looking out of my window and see that across the road from me is a Krimibuchhandlung [thriller bookshop] called Totsicher [Dead Sure] http://www.totsicher.com/index.html. I used to read a lot of crime fiction but I haven't in the last five years or so; I will have to investigate!

]

02-21-2007, 11:08 AM	#1
ironwasp Second Team and Threatening Starter's Job Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Finnair flight AY 839 from Helsinki to London Posts: 1,324	Any Civil War buffs out there? I know all you New Englanders are famed for your Revolutionary War exploits when you kicked the brave Redcoats and good King George out of the 13 States. But I wondered if anyone out there shared my enthusiasm and interest in the Civil War? I got interested a few years back - can't remember how anymore - and have been an enthusiastic student of the War ever since. Because I'm in England most of that has to be done through reading, website and watching films etc (and fortunately there is a great canon out there from Catton to Shaara to Foote etc). But because I have family in the Maryland/Virginia area I've also been able to get to a few sites, starting with Gettysburg and Antietam a couple of years ago, as well as a tiny one called Monocacy where the Confederates made a last desperate throw of the dice with an attack on Washington. Can anyone point me in the direction of interesting books, novels and Civil War films? Anyone have particularly interesting stories to tell? __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

02-21-2007, 11:34 AM	#2
milwaukeebeers44 Practice Squad Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Atlanta Posts: 497	Re: Any Civil War buffs out there? I have an interest, but not as deep as yours. Mine developed in my move from New England to Atlanta. . .I actually live about 3 miles from Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield and frequent its recreational trails. I've also been to Antietam. My husband is the major military history buff, but we've both taken care to learn a lot about the goings on in our area. __________________ “You always try to know what you need, try to manage the game given the game situation, ... and I think that's one of the things that Tom does best.” - Bill Belichick To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

02-21-2007, 11:51 AM	#4
everlong In the Starting Line-up Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Marshfield Posts: 3,830 Blog Entries: 1 My Mood:	Re: Any Civil War buffs out there? I'm a WWII buff although I have done some reading on the Civil War but it's been a long time. A guy I used to work with drives a lot for work and does audio books and he's a serious WWII. He bought these and said they were awesome and made his drive much more palatable. http://www.amazon.com/Civil-War-Narr.../dp/0394749138 I gave the book link since it was easier. Since you started the topic perhaps you can post some of the stuff that got you into it. Although I've read stuff on the Independence, 1812, WW1, Korea and Vietnam, I always end up back at WWII. __________________ "When Peyton Manning was a kid he used to go to bed at night and dream about throwing the winning touchdown for the Saints in the Superbowl. And on Sunday he did." There's only two conclusions for Patriots fans on rookies. They are either a bust or being fitted for their bust in Canton. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

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