Today is the day--my debut Civil War novel, Year of Crows, is now available in paperback and ebook via Lulu.com or wherever fine books are sold.
Cover design by Robert L. Kroening.
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Assorted Union artillerymen during the siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana. A sweltering, malaria-ridden, lice-infested hell. Source: Huntington Digital Library.
Private Glocus P. Crosby, 38th & 34th Iowa Infantry. Via Iowa Civil War Images.
Capt. Augustus W. Bockious, Co. K, 31st Iowa Infantry. Via Iowa Civil War Images.
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Feather Duster Boy, 1880, Eastman Johnson
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Another Lurid Tale of Mid-19th Century Nautical Naughtiness ‘Palsy! As I have used to do these several nights past, I slept on the port gratings under the boomcover. A coat answering me for a bed, and a sailor’s ditty bag performing the office of pillow at the same time for the boy Reever and myself, the former occupying a bed just forward of mine. Last night my friend Reever had a bed fellow forced upon him in the person of Coleman (the arch-reprobate of whom I’ve written under name of “Imp”) and I am now about to violate perhaps reason and decency to describe an event of the night which has in itself (perhaps) every claim to oblivion. Awhile after talk had ceased between us, I thought I could perceive a slight trembling of Reever’s head, upon which, disguising my suspicious, I laid my hand on his forehead and asked “what’s the matter — have you the fever-&-ague?” – The trembling ceased — the boy affirmed that a palsy in his right hand had caused the motion — Coleman perhaps could hardly suppress a laugh — and I flattered myself that my presence and interposition had stayed the commission of a dreadful crime.
'Coleman shortly afterwards decamped for some other quarters and the night passed away, leaving me still in the false but pleasing reflection that no sin had been perpetrated.
'Now for the sequel. Since then Coleman has unravelled the deception. The boy unbuttoned his trousers to show me some equivocal stains, “see, said he, the effects of that palsy!”’
- US Marine Corps Drummer Philip C. Van Buskirk, 16 Jan 1853. Source.
Private Robert Lowery, 17th and 8th Michigan Infantry. Lowery first enlisted when he was about 16. He died of disease in December 1863, while his regiment was cut off from supplies during the siege of Knoxville, Tennessee. USAHEC.
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I've got my eye on you... 1833 fashion plate detail, Victoria & Albert Museum collection.
Source: collections.vam.ac.uk
Camp scene, most likely members of the 24th New York Infantry ("Oswego County Regiment"). USAHEC.
Officers' cookhouse, Fort Pickering, Salem Harbor, Massachusetts, 1864. USAHEC.
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Jenny Wiström and Else Eriksson (wearing men's clothing), Sweden.
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Here’s a collection of vintage jester imagery.
Source: oneletterwords.com
Silas Soule is the 2nd man on the right in this 1859 photo of the "Immortal Ten," anti-slavery vigilantes who rescued Dr John Doy (seated) and returned him to Lawrence, Kansas after he'd been arrested by pro-slavery forces and brought to Missouri for attempting to escort 13 former slaves into Iowa. Soule himself had been helping slaves escape on the Underground Railroad since the age of 17. He was also a friend of Walt Whitman, a gold miner, and served in the 1st Colorado Infantry at the Battle of Glorieta Pass, New Mexico. Soule was shot and killed in April, 1865, while he was on duty as a provost marshal in Denver. It was thought at the time, but never proven, that his murderers were hired guns loyal to Chivington, who were striking out in revenge at Soule for testifying about the Sand Creek massacre.
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Walt Whitman, drawn by Keith Borgers.
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“The press of my foot to the earth springs a hundred affections;
They scorn the best I can do to relate them.”
-Walt Whitman
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Miniature tintypes (1” tall), c.1870. via