Chet The Dog

Posts Tagged ‘Civil War’

Beginnings (More)

On Sunday we’ve been doing beginnings – all the Chet and Bernies (as part of Chetspeak) – and now taking on all the Peter Abrahams novels in chronological order. Here, from 2001 (and perhaps slightly ahead of its time), #11 – LAST OF THE DIXIE HEROES (all about Civil War reenactors going a little too far):

Roy thought he heard his son crying in the night. He got up, went down the hall, opened Rhett’s door, smelled the emptiness inside.

And woke up. Must have been asleep until that moment. How else to explain it? Roy didn’t turn on the light.

Saturday Morning Coffee

When Spence (Pete) puts his feet up.

Here’s a book I wrote in 2002, perhaps not as well understood as it might have been. I’m guessing right now would have been a good pub date! Not saying it’s congruent with current events, but I think it relates to them, since we seem to be fighting the Civil War again. So are some of the people in LAST OF THE DIXIE HEROES. I’m sort of fond of the scene where Roy tries on that old CSA uniform that’s been in the family all those years, and it fits perfectly. (Also I love this cover, the statue coming to life and marching on Atlanta to maybe get there ahead of Sherman.)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FA679I?tag=ammbt-20

The Good Old Days

Uh-oh. Admin’s surrounded by piles of papers. He has ink on his face and is in a real bad mood. Must be tax time, whatever that is.

“Do you realize,” he says, must be to me, since no one else is around, “that before the 16th Amendment in 1913 there was no U.S. income tax, except for a brief period in the Civil War?” He throws up his hands. “Why couldn’t I have been born back then?”

A tough one. I’ve got no answers. On the floor I spot a sheet of paper with lots of writing on it. For no particular reason I pick it up and take it outside for burial.

Welcome Bernadette’s friend.

Shiloh

“One hundred and fifty years ago today,” Spence says.

“Shiloh,” says Admin. “Hornet’s nest, fallen timbers, sunken road – the first really big bloodbath of the Civil War.”

“Although there’s a sunken road at Antietam, too – kind of confusing.”

“Don’t a lot of the battles have a similar pattern – Confederates winning day one, Union day two, and then it’s sort of over?”

“Not sure. But in two or three days those huge armies would probably eat up all the food around and have to move on.”

“Reminds me of Napoleon – an army marches on its belly.”

“Civil War tactics hadn’t moved on much from Napoleon’s time. But the weapons had, as both armies learned in the worst way. Endlessly fascinating in retrospect, the Civil War, and if I may venture an opinion, a guarantee of American exceptionalism pretty much forever.”

Welcome Guinness.