I've posted about this a couple of times in the blog section and have mentioned it on my Facebook page, but I just realized I should have a separate page here too in case the posts fall off the front.
Anyway, I've started working on a book, tentatively entitled "Campbell County Civil War Soldiers and Their Stories."
The project will first involve me researching soldiers connected to Campbell County (Kentucky), with "connected" meaning born in, lived in, died in and/or buried in my home county. I will likely have over 1,000 names on this list, and I have found a few men who do not meet those criteria but do have some ties to Campbell County, such as having served in the area or having widows who lived here. Deciding how to handle them is one of the challenges I will have to face during this enterprise.
After compiling this list, I will write stories about some of these soldiers. Some of them will be based on stories I have already written here, though in different and almost certainly shorter versions. I have about 100 ideas for men to profile. I don't know how many I will do, or if there are any I can do in very short - one paragraph? - stories, but I have found a lot of interesting tales. Most of them are based on the military aspects of these men's lives, but quite a few interesting civilian lives have come to my attention too, so I do hope to mix both military and non-military stories in this section. My hope is that this book will appeal both to Civil War students and to people interested in local history and genealogy. That is another of the challenges I will have to address at some point.
So far, this has been enjoyable for me. Some of the research is getting tougher as I apparently have found all the "easy" soldiers and sailors and now have to grind a bit more trying to find and confirm some other names, but that was something I expected. This is not going to be easy - if I'm going to commit to something like this, I am going to do my best and not just take shortcuts or the easiest way out.
My plan is to use this blog and perhaps this page to update my progress, express frustrations or share interesting new finds as I shuttle away at this project. I hope I have not bitten off more than I can chew, but there is just one way to find out. I’m going all-in tight now and will see where that leads me.
For this project, my email address will be campbellctycivilwarbook@gmail.com.
Wish me luck 😁
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