Civil War Interactive Discussion Board Home 
Home Search search Menu menu Not logged in - Login | Register


 Moderated by: javal1
New Topic Reply Printer Friendly
Civil War Autobiography  Rate Topic 
AuthorPost
 Posted: Fri Mar 6th, 2009 06:09 pm
  PM Quote Reply
1st Post
rumtumtugger
Member
 

Joined: Fri Mar 6th, 2009
Location:  
Posts: 3
Status: 
Offline
Mana: 
Hello, I am new to this board and hope some of you experts can help me. I am just finishing up typing up the Autobiography of my great great grandfather's first cousin, including all his Civil War memories. He was in an Ohio regiment and fought in Tennessee. I would like to send it to a Government entity or Museum where people doing Civil War and Genealogy research could get the most access to it, does anyone have any ideas where that might be? Thanks for your input!

Back To Top PM Quote Reply  

You have chosen to ignore Savez. click Here to view this post

 Posted: Fri Mar 6th, 2009 06:54 pm
  PM Quote Reply
3rd Post
javal1
Grumpy Geezer


Joined: Thu Sep 1st, 2005
Location: Tennessee USA
Posts: 1493
Status: 
Offline
Mana: 
I think he may be saying that his gggrandfather's cousin wrote the autobiography and he's just transcribing and typing it.

You could always try one of the large universities. Many of them have invaluable collections of such things. Welcome to the board!

Back To Top PM Quote Reply  

You have chosen to ignore Savez. click Here to view this post

 Posted: Sat Mar 7th, 2009 01:44 am
  PM Quote Reply
5th Post
CleburneFan
Member


Joined: Mon Oct 30th, 2006
Location: Florida USA
Posts: 1019
Status: 
Offline
Mana: 
It is possible that some collectors of Civil War memorabilia might be interested, but you'd have to research such collectors and what their specialty is.

Because your gg-grandfather fought in Tennessee, museums such as the Carter House in Franklin might have an interest most especially if he fought at Franklin.  It would help to know where he fought in Tennessee.

Back To Top PM Quote Reply  

 Posted: Sat Mar 7th, 2009 02:18 am
  PM Quote Reply
6th Post
rumtumtugger
Member
 

Joined: Fri Mar 6th, 2009
Location:  
Posts: 3
Status: 
Offline
Mana: 
Thanks to all of you for your suggestions! My ancestor was Charles D. Hammer, an Adjutant under Colonel Payne and an Aide to General Wood in the 124th Ohio Regiment. He was present at the Battle of Franklin, the "Battle of the Clouds" on Lookout Mountain, Resaca, New Hope Church, Jonesboro, Lovejoy Station, etc. I don't know if the memoir is interesting enough for publication, but I would of course love to see it published! It is 77 pages and includes all of his early life growing up in Pennsylvania and Ohio, his Army career, some of his experiences after the war with the Molly Maguires, and his subsequent careers and marriages. The main part is about the Civil War. Since he was an Aide, there are a lot of details about the homes that were commandeered for "Headquarters"  and personal details about the people he met and what he saw and experienced.  I have had lots of fun transcribing it! Does anyone have suggestions about who I could approach about publication? Thanks again!

Back To Top PM Quote Reply

 Posted: Sat Mar 7th, 2009 02:51 am
  PM Quote Reply
7th Post
CleburneFan
Member


Joined: Mon Oct 30th, 2006
Location: Florida USA
Posts: 1019
Status: 
Offline
Mana: 
Here's a thought. You could self publish the work. Do a Google search of publishers who specialize in that. You will not get rich from this approach, but you will have the satisfaction of having  the memoirs in book form. If you seek out a publisher who is not a self publisher, you may have an uphill battle. Publishers are reluctant to take on memoirs lately because of embarassments they have  experienced lately with some  well known notorious"fictionalized" and embroidered memoirs.

A man who worked with Hubby had a very impressive ancestor who was an officer in the Civil War. This man spent a considerable amount of time researching his ancestor's past. He wrote up the results of all that extensive research and had it self published. I have read his book and actually it turned out to be quite interesting even though I had doubted it would be before I read it.

But the other consideration is that your papers might not lend themselves in their present form to a readable narrative. Which brings us back to the notion perhaps the memoirs would be of better use for a university with a history department or a museum. The museum or universtity might carefully examine the memoirs to see if they are authentic. Do not be insulted by that. They are just doing their job.

I hope you are able to do something with your papers. They might be of extra special interest to a researcher who is investigating the very battles your ancestor wrote about. I wish you luck.

Last edited on Sat Mar 7th, 2009 02:53 am by CleburneFan

Back To Top PM Quote Reply  

 Posted: Mon Mar 9th, 2009 02:49 am
  PM Quote Reply
8th Post
rumtumtugger
Member
 

Joined: Fri Mar 6th, 2009
Location:  
Posts: 3
Status: 
Offline
Mana: 
Thank you CleburneFan! I think I may send it to the Carter House in Franklin, because there is so much detail about the battle there. I think I will also bring a copy Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, where he and his wives and 3 of his children are buried, because they have a library there. Then I would like to track down some of his other descendents who may not have seen this memoir. Wow, still so much work to do!! ( :

Back To Top PM Quote Reply

Current time is 05:39 pm  
Civil War Interactive Discussion Board > Civil War Talk > General Civil War Talk > Civil War Autobiography Top



Lead Theme By: Di @ UltraBB
UltraBB 1.17 Copyright © 2007-2008 Data 1 Systems
Page processed in 0.3577 seconds (9% database + 91% PHP). 27 queries executed.