I know I haven’t posted in awhile, and I finally have a bit of free time, so I decided to dedicate a post to something I care a lot about, but haven’t ever written about on this blog. By looking at the title, I’m sure you have a pretty good guess as to what I’m writing about.
Well here it goes, I love Civil War History. It all started with my older brother and my dad. They both love exploring old battle sites, quizzing each other on odd facts, and just reading about times long gone. They love most of American History, but what got me hooked was the Civil War.
You see this PBS special came on when I was little, you’ve probably heard of it, the Ken Burns one. Well some of it really caught my attention, and the music was very memorable to me. It wasn’t something I got excited about watching, but once I started, I found it was hard to stop.
Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Civil_War_(TV_series)
Well, when I got a bit older, I was introduced to Gettysburg, the three-hour-long spectacle made in the 90s. At first I didn’t see the appeal, but as my brother and father watched and rewatched the movie, I started to get it. The characters were hilarious, all their banter and wit drew my affection and I found myself cheering for my favorites as they went into battle.
Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_(1993_film)
Then the final straw happened; my family went on vacation and while we were exploring, we came across the battle site of Gettysburg. Before we left the on site gift shop, I purchased a book that would change my reading life forever: Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels. It was the book that spurred the Gettysburg movie. I was thrilled to find all my favorite characters from the movie, along with new dialogue and inner thoughts that the movie had no time to include.
Image Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/682804.The_Killer_Angels
And once I finished that book, I found that Jeff Shaara had continued the legacy by writing a prequel and sequel to the Killer Angels. From that time on I couldn’t stop reading about generals and foot soldiers. Every book Jeff Shaara wrote, was soon in my hands. And I was thrilled when in the past couple of years he decided to return to the Civil War age and write another series about the major battles in the West.
So if there’s anyone out there who needs a good book to read, I would happily suggest any Shaara book. I myself will be starting his newest book “The Smoke at Dawn” shortly.
Image Source: http://wutc.org/post/shaara-s-smoke-dawn-novel-civil-war-dramatizes-chattanooga-battles#stream/0
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