A Writer's Journey: T.W. Harvey, Author

A Writer’s Journey

Seeing the Elephant: One Man’s Return to the Horrors of the Civil War

Cleveland, Ohio  

By T.W. Harvey

My publisher and mentor, Gina McKnight of Monday Creek Publishing in Buchtel, Ohio, suggested to me the other day that I blog about the process that I undertook to write Seeing the Elephant: One Man’s Return to the Horrors of the Civil War. At the outset, I will admit that the title should have been “One Man’s Triumphs over the Horrors of the Civil War” because the main character, Lieutenant Thomas S. Armstrong survived this conflict that changed the United States forever. Incidentally, Armstrong was my great-grandfather, so I am very grateful that he did, indeed, survive. I’ve never done a blog before, but here goes!

I am not going to relate the details of the book, which was published by Monday Creek in December 2018, rather to offer the events that resulted in its creation and the thoughts and feelings of those who were involved with it. As I develop this blog, you will meet people, and you may wonder who they are and why I have included them, but I will ask you to trust me since each one played a significant role in the “Elephant.”

Of course, the first question you will ask is what does seeing the elephant mean. Fair enough. It is a term, only used in the military of the United States, to indicate that a soldier has been in battle and has seen exactly what that means. War is cruel, and we must give our thanks and praise to the men and women who have fought for our freedom in America. I had not thought about it for a good number of years until I started learning about Tom Armstrong and the sacrifices he and millions like him have made in the service of our country. The respect that I have for them is immeasurable.

As we proceed, you will get to know me as an author. Prior to the “Elephant,” I had two books on banking and finance published, Quality Value Banking in 1992 and The Banking Revolution in 1996. I know, pretty dry, but what would expect from and MBA in finance, soon to be Ph.D. But, you see, I have always loved to write. Actually, my first publication was a play that was selected by my 4^th grade teacher at Fairfax Elementary School here in Cleveland Heights was performed at an assembly in front of all of the students, teachers, and staff.

Some years later, at Hillsdale College in Michigan, I was taught to write well by Professors James King and Charles Wesley of the English Department. They emphasized things like proper grammar, correct punctuation, appropriate sentence structure, and the importance of making whatever it was interesting to the reader. And, then, upon graduation, I went to work for a small firm that had a contract with John Wiley& Sons to develop a series of social science textbooks for high schools all over the country. Talk about pressure to make your work good. Those books were a long way from a 4^th grade play and papers written at Hillsdale. They did very well, I might add.

You will also meet my wife, Paula, who proofread the “Elephant” at least two times, maybe three, not for the history but for the writing itself. One of my goals in the book was to have the reader feel like he or she “was there,” actually bring part of the story. I never mentioned that to her and was quite pleased when she would say “You know, I felt like I was there.” I also wanted to have people say, “I had a hard time putting it down. I wanted to find out what happened.”

Others who you will hear about are Kathryn Vossler, Ph.D. in History; Stephen Shay, M.D. and Ret. Colonel, United States Army; and David “Mitch” Taylor, Curator of Muskingum County (OH.) History. Also, Penny and John Scarpucci, and Betty and Richard Smith, Ph.D. in History. And, as we go, I am sure there will be others.

Enough of this introduction. Let’s get on with it. In the next post, I will tell you about the wooden crates. Wooden crates, you ask? What’s so important about wooden crates? I will just say now that without them, there would be no story.

To see the Paula B. And Thomas W. Collection of Civil War Letters at Ohio Wesleyan Unversity's online archive, click here!

About Dr. Harvey

Dr. Tom Harvey is a retired Associate Professor of Finance at Ashland (Ohio) University. He has published two books, Quality Value Banking: Effective Management Systems that Increase Earnings, Lower Costs, and Provide Competitive Customer Service, with Janet L. Gray, and The Banking Revolution: Positioning Your Bank in The New Financial Services Marketplace. Further, he had articles published in both practitioner and academic journals.

Dr. Harvey has always been fascinated by the history of the United States and was grateful to have the opportunity to study it in detail while researching and writing Seeing the Elephant: One Man’s Return to the Horrors of the Civil War.

He was born and raised in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He graduated from Hillsdale College with a BA in English, from Case Western Reserve University with an MBA in Finance, from Cleveland State University with a doctorate in management and strategy. He and his wife, Paula, reside in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.