My latest book, “Civil War Characters of the Low Country,” has been published. It is a look at the Civil War in the Southeast through the lives of 50 key actors, from Fire-Eater Robert Rhett to Freedom Fighter Robert Smalls, and many others.
The war began there with the attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. But the region quickly became a military backwater as the Union seized control up and down the coast and implemented its blockade. Ironically, the next four years would see this firmly pre-war secessionist region become a leader, via the Union army’s protection, the vision of reformers from the North, and advancement and hard work of the formerly-enslaved, the site of more socio-economic reform than any other.
The book is available at https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HV4SSWK on amazon.com.
GENE SCHMIEL, CIVIL WAR HISTORIAN, AUTHOR, AND LECTURER 