Best Little Ironies, Oddities & Mysteries of the Civil War
Nashville, TN: Cumberland House, 2000. Sixth printing [stated]. Trade paperback. xv, [1], 416 pages. Illustrations. Bibliography. Index. Slight cover wear and soiling. Signed by both authors with sentiment on the half title page. Reads as Best little wishes Brian Kelly and Read, Learn & Enjoy Ingrid Smyer. Autographed sticker on front cover. C. Brian Kelly, a prize-winning journalist, is cofounder of Montpelier Publishing and a former editor for Military History magazine. He is also a lecturer in newswriting at the University of Virginia. Kelly's articles have appeared in Reader's Digest, Friends, Yankee, Rod Serling's Twilight Zone, and other magazines. He is the author of several books on American history. Mr. Kelly was a newspaper reporter for 20 years and now teaches news writing at the University of Virginia. His wife, Mrs. Smyer-Kelly, is a former freelance writer for newspapers. In recent years she has served on the board of the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center of Virginia in Charlottesville and as a member of the city’s Historical Resources Committee. Best Little Ironies, Oddities, and Mysteries of the Civil War is a collection of more than 100 stories of unusual and frequently surprising events that took place in connection with the Civil War. Organized by topics into seven sections, the stories include ironies that grew out of incidents that took place prior to the war, the unexpected consequences of events and the early days of the conflict, twists and turns of fate among soldiers, civilians and officers, and postwar happenings. All of these stories are written from a journalistic history approach that looks for the "feature story" aspects in the war's events, including:
William "Mudwall" Jackson, who - as a lawyer, judge, and lieutenant governor of Virginia - would have been far better known than his cousin "Stonewall" Jackson had war not broken out.
The man in charge of quelling John Brown's uprising at Harpers Ferry in 1859, surprisingly none other than Robert E. Lee.
Jeff Greenwold of Anoka, Minnesota, who was the first volunteer of the first regiment to organize to fight for the Union.
Brig. Gen. Robert Gannett, who was the first general officer of either side to be killed in battle.
An unnamed Union soldier who broke down in tears following the battle of Williamsburg at the sight of a dead Confederate soldier, then kissed his enemy - his brother.
John Taylor Wood, whose grandfather had been president of the United States, whose father was a 36-year veteran in the Union army, but whose aunt was married to Confederate president Jefferson Davis.
Frank Crawford Armstrong, who served in both the Confederate and Union armies.
Union officer Orton Williams - raised by Robert E. Lee and his wife at Arlington house after Williams had been orphaned - who later informed Mary Lee that Federal troops would be coming to occupy her home the next day. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: West Point, John Taylor Wood, Beast Butler, Stonewall Jackson, Baseball, Medal of Honor, Dahlgren, Bixby, George Armstrong Custer, Libby Prison, Antietam, Ulysses Grant, Benjamin Butler, Mudwall
ISBN: 1581821166
[Book #85597]
Price: $115.00