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An Interview with Ohio Author T.W. Harvey
From Ohio USA, T.W. Harvey is an award-winning historical
fiction author, just releasing his second novel Answering Lincoln’s Call: War
in America. His new title is a prequel to the first,
focusing on his rare collection of family letters from the Civil War era.
Welcome, Tom!
GM: What's the premise for your new book?
TWH: Answering Lincoln’s Call: War in America opens with the Confederate bombardment of the Union Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor in April 1861. President Abraham Lincoln immediately called for 75,000 men of the northern states to enlist in the army to put down the southern uprising down. Lincoln thought his forces could accomplish it in two months, maybe three, but after the Confederate victory at the first Battle at Manassas, it became apparent it was not going to happen that fast and more men were needed.
Recruitment meetings were held throughout all the northern states including in Muskingum County, Ohio, some 80 miles east of the state capital, Columbus. My great grandfather, Thomas S. Armstrong, and his best friend who would ultimately become his brother-in-law, George W. Porter, enlisted with Tom’s brother, Wilbur, and three other friends in the 78th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, but only after they considered the risks of going into harm’s way for their country.
We know this because in 1992, we found 250 letters Armstrong and Porter wrote home to their families about their experiences in the Civil War. The letters detailed how difficult the decision to enlist was for some and how easy it was for others. But they went much farther than that as they told us of their experiences through the entire conflict which ended in April 1865. Thus, they became the basis for my historical novels, this one and the two that follow it in the trilogy, Seeing the Elephant: One Man’s Return to the Horrors of the Civil War, which is Tom Armstrong’s story, and From Vicksburg to Bennett Place: The Long March to Victory, George Porter’s story, all three very true.
Not only did the letters provide extraordinary detail about the war in the Western theater, but they also provide insight into what life at home was like, back in the 1860s, and how different it was from today. Back then, America was an agrarian society, and life was based on working on the farm, going to church every Sunday, and making sure your children went to the closest school and were educated properly. Pretty simple, really, compared to today, but more on that a little later.
GM: How can readers view the original letters written by your
ancestors? What is important for readers to know about these letters?
TWH: In 2016, we donated the letters to Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) since my great grandfather matriculated there in 1859 while my wife and brother enrolled in 1959 with most everyone in the family going there except my wife’s sister, our dads, and me. The letters themselves are in the archives at Beeghly Library at OWU, and they were digitized for anyone to see. Interested readers can go to… https://digitalcommons.owu.edu/harvey/
It is a unique and rare collection of historical documents as they provide a first-person account of the events of the Civil War. I have been told it may be the only one of very few collections of this magnitude and depth.
GM: Do you have a favorite character in your current novel?
TWH: Yes, my great-grandfather, Thomas Armstrong. I’m named for him, and it was extremely interesting to read his letters that showed his personality in which I saw some of my own traits. For example, he was a teacher before and after the war, and I knew at a very early age that was also what I wanted to do and ultimately did.
Furthermore, he also thought things through very carefully before making decisions which annoyed George Porter, but that was who Tom was. Now, I don’t always consider things as thoroughly as he did, but I do evaluate alternatives and the effects of decisions and actions. I can’t say I am exactly like him, nobody could be, but his devotion to his family, his faith, the love of books, and the way he communicated through his letters and other writing struck home.
GM: What are your methods for writing fictional scenarios that
tie-in with real-life events?
TWH: As mentioned, the letters told the story, thinking about whether to enlist or not and making the final decision, in consideration of the thoughts and feelings of family and friends. Then, enlisting in the 78th Ohio, going to training at Camp Zanesville, being ordered to Kentucky to join General Ulysses S. Grant’s army, where it arrived at Fort Donelson while the battle between North and South was raging; from there it was on to Shiloh in southern Tennessee, the second fight in the Western theater after Fort Donelson that started to turn the war in favor of the union
With what the letters told me, I conducted meticulous research into things such as the towns where recruiting meetings took place, the location of Camp Zanesville and what it looked like, the 2nd Street wharf in Zanesville where the 78th boarded the steamers to journey down the Muskingum River to the Ohio, then to the Mississippi, and finally to Fort Donelson.
Then there were the marches and the battles at Fort Donelson and Shiloh about which volumes have been written. So, all I had to do was fit the letters to the research and then create what human thoughts and actions might have been as the war raged on. What followed were conversations, decisions, and actions that led to the results the research found.
Was I correct in that? We’ll never know, but folks who have read Seeing the Elephant seem to think so. Many have said they felt like they were involved in those conversations, marching from Camp Zanesville to the wharf in freezing weather, and seeing the dead and wounded at Fort Donelson and Shiloh. That was my aim, and it seems I achieved it.
GM: What was the most difficult scene to write in this book?
TWH: The 78th Ohio at Shiloh. Upon arriving in southern Tennessee, the 78th Ohio, a part of General Lew Wallace’s 3rd Division of Grant’s Army of the Tennessee was ordered to guard warehouses and destroy Confederate railroad tracks some eight miles north of Shiloh where the battle would take place. On the morning of April 6, 1862, the Confederate army attacked Grant’s forces, and he sent word to Wallace to get to the battlefield on the double to reinforce the 5th Division of General William T. Sherman. So I had to figure out the logistics of that march.
That would have been easy, but George’s letter told me Wallace chose a road that he believed would satisfy Grant’s order, but it wasn’t to be and he had to retrace his steps back to camp and then find another way, a delay of several hours. That meant I had to find additional detailed maps of southern Tennessee to determine how the march would have continued, including the detours and delays that caused the 3rd Division to arrive more than ten hours late. Wallace was sacked for his failure to follow orders, dereliction of duties the Union command called it. But trying to figure out how the march took place and then describing it was a challenge.
GM: What would you like readers to take away from your new novel
and how can they apply it to current events?
TWH: As previously noted, both North and South were agrarian cultures in the 1860s although their methods of farming were entirely different. Slavery was an integral element of the Southern way of life while it was not in the North, as members of the family took responsibility for the crops and gardens, putting their own hands in the dirt. It didn’t work that way in the South.
Life was slow back then as opposed to our fast-paced, commercial culture of today, as we are bombarded by the internet, cable television, and cell phones. It is safe to say that Porter and Armstrong would be shocked at things today and most likely would not understand any of it at all.
Education was important to all in the 1860s as I have said, but today we see children being taught things like critical race theory, trans gender choices, and cancel culture where if you don’t like something, you just make it go away. These subjects should not be taught because children at all levels of school, even high school, do not really understand what they mean. As a result, traditional subjects are not being covered as they should be as we see the understanding of mathematics, reading, science, and history declining as shown by recent lower test scores. Add to that, there is a lack of discipline in the classroom and a disrespect of teachers that have resulted in physical confrontations. It is disturbing to hear about teachers and students in fist fights.
Religion was also very important as families made it the center of their lives, saying grace at every meal and attending three services every Sunday at the churches near where they lived. Today, at least in many Protestant denominations, we see membership and attendance decreasing.
If I sound pessimistic, I am, and what is most disturbing, I do not see any way to reverse what I am seeing and hearing.
GM: When writing fictional characters, do you use traits/habits
of family and/or friends for your characters?
TWH: No. The letters gave me all I need to know about Tom, George, and their families. In addition to them, I had to include men such as Lew Wallace, Sherman, John Logan, and Grant, so I had to do research on them.
For locals such as Mortimer Leggett,
Zachariah Chandler, leaders of the 78th Ohio, and friends of George
and Tom like Bob Hanson, John W.A. Gillespie, and Henry Axline, the letters
gave me insight as to who they were.
But, to make the story work, I had to invent other characters such as Chauncey Wescott, a saloon owner, Tobias Bishop, a sergeant in the 78th, James Ferguson, a banker, and Micah Schwartz, a tailor. About 40% of the characters are fictionalized who I needed for conversations with the main characters and to bring the events the letters told to life.
GM: What are you currently writing?
TWH: I’m taking a break. However, I am conducting further research on my family through 750 additional letters we found that were written anywhere from 1836 through 1888. These letters and more research on such topics as slavery both prior to and after the Emancipation Proclamation and reconstruction during the Grant presidency will result in books to be undertaken in 2023 going forward.
TWH: Answering Lincoln’s Call: War in America opens with the Confederate bombardment of the Union Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor in April 1861. President Abraham Lincoln immediately called for 75,000 men of the northern states to enlist in the army to put down the southern uprising down. Lincoln thought his forces could accomplish it in two months, maybe three, but after the Confederate victory at the first Battle at Manassas, it became apparent it was not going to happen that fast and more men were needed.
Recruitment meetings were held throughout all the northern states including in Muskingum County, Ohio, some 80 miles east of the state capital, Columbus. My great grandfather, Thomas S. Armstrong, and his best friend who would ultimately become his brother-in-law, George W. Porter, enlisted with Tom’s brother, Wilbur, and three other friends in the 78th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, but only after they considered the risks of going into harm’s way for their country.
We know this because in 1992, we found 250 letters Armstrong and Porter wrote home to their families about their experiences in the Civil War. The letters detailed how difficult the decision to enlist was for some and how easy it was for others. But they went much farther than that as they told us of their experiences through the entire conflict which ended in April 1865. Thus, they became the basis for my historical novels, this one and the two that follow it in the trilogy, Seeing the Elephant: One Man’s Return to the Horrors of the Civil War, which is Tom Armstrong’s story, and From Vicksburg to Bennett Place: The Long March to Victory, George Porter’s story, all three very true.
Not only did the letters provide extraordinary detail about the war in the Western theater, but they also provide insight into what life at home was like, back in the 1860s, and how different it was from today. Back then, America was an agrarian society, and life was based on working on the farm, going to church every Sunday, and making sure your children went to the closest school and were educated properly. Pretty simple, really, compared to today, but more on that a little later.
TWH: In 2016, we donated the letters to Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) since my great grandfather matriculated there in 1859 while my wife and brother enrolled in 1959 with most everyone in the family going there except my wife’s sister, our dads, and me. The letters themselves are in the archives at Beeghly Library at OWU, and they were digitized for anyone to see. Interested readers can go to… https://digitalcommons.owu.edu/harvey/
It is a unique and rare collection of historical documents as they provide a first-person account of the events of the Civil War. I have been told it may be the only one of very few collections of this magnitude and depth.
TWH: Yes, my great-grandfather, Thomas Armstrong. I’m named for him, and it was extremely interesting to read his letters that showed his personality in which I saw some of my own traits. For example, he was a teacher before and after the war, and I knew at a very early age that was also what I wanted to do and ultimately did.
Furthermore, he also thought things through very carefully before making decisions which annoyed George Porter, but that was who Tom was. Now, I don’t always consider things as thoroughly as he did, but I do evaluate alternatives and the effects of decisions and actions. I can’t say I am exactly like him, nobody could be, but his devotion to his family, his faith, the love of books, and the way he communicated through his letters and other writing struck home.
TWH: As mentioned, the letters told the story, thinking about whether to enlist or not and making the final decision, in consideration of the thoughts and feelings of family and friends. Then, enlisting in the 78th Ohio, going to training at Camp Zanesville, being ordered to Kentucky to join General Ulysses S. Grant’s army, where it arrived at Fort Donelson while the battle between North and South was raging; from there it was on to Shiloh in southern Tennessee, the second fight in the Western theater after Fort Donelson that started to turn the war in favor of the union
With what the letters told me, I conducted meticulous research into things such as the towns where recruiting meetings took place, the location of Camp Zanesville and what it looked like, the 2nd Street wharf in Zanesville where the 78th boarded the steamers to journey down the Muskingum River to the Ohio, then to the Mississippi, and finally to Fort Donelson.
Then there were the marches and the battles at Fort Donelson and Shiloh about which volumes have been written. So, all I had to do was fit the letters to the research and then create what human thoughts and actions might have been as the war raged on. What followed were conversations, decisions, and actions that led to the results the research found.
Was I correct in that? We’ll never know, but folks who have read Seeing the Elephant seem to think so. Many have said they felt like they were involved in those conversations, marching from Camp Zanesville to the wharf in freezing weather, and seeing the dead and wounded at Fort Donelson and Shiloh. That was my aim, and it seems I achieved it.
TWH: The 78th Ohio at Shiloh. Upon arriving in southern Tennessee, the 78th Ohio, a part of General Lew Wallace’s 3rd Division of Grant’s Army of the Tennessee was ordered to guard warehouses and destroy Confederate railroad tracks some eight miles north of Shiloh where the battle would take place. On the morning of April 6, 1862, the Confederate army attacked Grant’s forces, and he sent word to Wallace to get to the battlefield on the double to reinforce the 5th Division of General William T. Sherman. So I had to figure out the logistics of that march.
That would have been easy, but George’s letter told me Wallace chose a road that he believed would satisfy Grant’s order, but it wasn’t to be and he had to retrace his steps back to camp and then find another way, a delay of several hours. That meant I had to find additional detailed maps of southern Tennessee to determine how the march would have continued, including the detours and delays that caused the 3rd Division to arrive more than ten hours late. Wallace was sacked for his failure to follow orders, dereliction of duties the Union command called it. But trying to figure out how the march took place and then describing it was a challenge.
TWH: As previously noted, both North and South were agrarian cultures in the 1860s although their methods of farming were entirely different. Slavery was an integral element of the Southern way of life while it was not in the North, as members of the family took responsibility for the crops and gardens, putting their own hands in the dirt. It didn’t work that way in the South.
Life was slow back then as opposed to our fast-paced, commercial culture of today, as we are bombarded by the internet, cable television, and cell phones. It is safe to say that Porter and Armstrong would be shocked at things today and most likely would not understand any of it at all.
Education was important to all in the 1860s as I have said, but today we see children being taught things like critical race theory, trans gender choices, and cancel culture where if you don’t like something, you just make it go away. These subjects should not be taught because children at all levels of school, even high school, do not really understand what they mean. As a result, traditional subjects are not being covered as they should be as we see the understanding of mathematics, reading, science, and history declining as shown by recent lower test scores. Add to that, there is a lack of discipline in the classroom and a disrespect of teachers that have resulted in physical confrontations. It is disturbing to hear about teachers and students in fist fights.
Religion was also very important as families made it the center of their lives, saying grace at every meal and attending three services every Sunday at the churches near where they lived. Today, at least in many Protestant denominations, we see membership and attendance decreasing.
If I sound pessimistic, I am, and what is most disturbing, I do not see any way to reverse what I am seeing and hearing.
TWH: No. The letters gave me all I need to know about Tom, George, and their families. In addition to them, I had to include men such as Lew Wallace, Sherman, John Logan, and Grant, so I had to do research on them.
But, to make the story work, I had to invent other characters such as Chauncey Wescott, a saloon owner, Tobias Bishop, a sergeant in the 78th, James Ferguson, a banker, and Micah Schwartz, a tailor. About 40% of the characters are fictionalized who I needed for conversations with the main characters and to bring the events the letters told to life.
TWH: I’m taking a break. However, I am conducting further research on my family through 750 additional letters we found that were written anywhere from 1836 through 1888. These letters and more research on such topics as slavery both prior to and after the Emancipation Proclamation and reconstruction during the Grant presidency will result in books to be undertaken in 2023 going forward.
TWH:
- My Scottish heritage: the castle built by the clan in the 1530s still stands
- One brother, no sisters
- Always lived in Ohio
- Very interested in soccer
- Played baseball in Jr. High, Sr. High, and college
- Been to 47 of the 50 states
- Worked in Russia in 1997 and 1998
- Started teaching at the college level in 1999
- Received two literary awards for Seeing the Elephant
- Been to 18 foreign countries
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1 comment:
Excellent blogpost, great done;)
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