Working on my project

Work on my book project has been a bit spotty this week due to various appointments and other tasks, but I’m still making progress confirming Campbell County Civil War soldiers and even some more birth/death dates and burial places. I’ve even found one whose cause of death was ‘suicide by hanging.” It happened in 1888, but I wonder if that soldier suffered from what we today call PTSD. Whether it was or was not, it still is a sad story.

I have also started writing a draft of an introduction for the book, or at least getting some basic comments on it in full sentences and paragraphs instead of just notes. Work on it has just begun, but it is nice to have it started with some organization and development of  how I want that section to read.

Furthermore, I  created a list of soldiers and sailor names whose stories I want to share. For some of these, I have even started dome basic writing and note-taking, based on previous stories I have written or sources I know I want to use. There will be more of these than I had expected, but they will likely be the heart of the book. The list of names will hopefully be useful to researchers and maybe genealogists, but I suspect the individual stories will determine how much interest people might have in this book, so I want these to be interesting, and, of course, well-written. 

Like with the introduction, I’m glad to have this part at least started, giving me a sign of come progress and helping me start to see how much writing lies ahead. Many details await, such as if I want to divide these into chapters based on certain topics like casualties of war or just list them alphabetically.

It is not much, but it is progress, and I am still enjoying it.

I also must say that going through so many individual records is a different way of learning about the war than just reading books about battles or famous personalities. I wish I had started research like this much earlier. It is a fascinating experience, at least so far.