New Book

Next week my newest book should be available for purchase through lulu.com, copies will be available locally soon after. This book is a compilation of 24 of my Echoes of the Past columns that deal with the Civil War era in Minden. It's titled: Echoes of Our Past - The Civil War Years in Minden.

The Civil War was the event that hooked me on history. Some of you may be familiar with the story my mother liked to tell about me teaching myself to read. The time I was learning was the early 1960s as the Civil War Centennial was at its peak. For all the reasons that war stories are exciting to little boys, I was hooked by the Civil War. When the folks from the School Board called me into the office to prove I could read as I started 2nd grade. They made a big mistake, for some reason the "reading test" they gave me was to read the caption to the painting -- "Lee and His Generals". I did read the content, but they didn't realize I knew those generals already and could have "faked it."

As I grew older, my interest in the Civil War waned to some degree. I tell my students that I knew more about the Civil War at age eight than I know today. It's probably true. Even though I am still very interested in the war, it is not my passion. However, it does remain a passion for so many folks in our area. I probably get more questions about the Civil War than any other topic. For that reason, I decided my first experiment in self-publishing would put all my published writings on the Civil War into a single volume. I think it will be a good thing locally because after my columns are long forgotten, a copy of this book will contain some of the information I have been able to compile in a more permanent form.

I need to give a big thanks to my talented nephew, David Jameson. He happened to be in Minden this summer in transit from his teaching job in Indonesia en route to graduate school in Virginia this fall. I have no talent for art -- the dirty little secret to the "reading at three" story that Momma loved to tell is that even though I could read at three, I couldn't get my library card until I was five because I found it impossible to write my name, some, after reading my scratching say I still can't write my name -- so me doing any art work was out of the question. David was willing to help me out and created the cover image that makes the book attractive and memorable.

Hope some of you decide to check out this latest work.