Not surprisingly, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the four talks I had scheduled for Ohio later this month, in Peninsula, Oberlin, Tiffin, and Zanesville, have been cancelled. All of them are being re-scheduled for April 2021. For those not familiar with the supply and demand of Civil War speakers, a year’s delay might seem surprising. But in fact it is the norm for speakers to be scheduled many months in advance. For example, I am looking forward to three talks in northern Tennessee scheduled for September 2021!
The “stay at home” directive/suggestion has given me time to work on book projects, as follows:
First, I have compiled many of my blogs on this site into a book tentatively titled: Civil War Musings and Reflections…Blogging about the “American Iliad.” Most of my blogs are designed to be thought-provoking, and that is why I have “mused” about them. My objective is for the reader also to do some thinking and musing about the information and opinions in these items. Tentative cover below.
Second, I am working on a volume annotating General Jacob Cox’s letters to his wife during the Civil War. This would be a companion piece to my biography of Cox, Citizen-General: Jacob Dolson Cox and the Civil War Era, (Ohio University Press, 2014). It is a fascinating collection of over 200 letters through which we can trace the evolution of a military neophyte into a capable soldier to whom General William T. Sherman offered a brigadier generalship in the regular army after the war. More on this later.
For now, keep safe.
GENE SCHMIEL, CIVIL WAR HISTORIAN, AUTHOR, AND LECTURER 