New Civil War Novel

I am very pleased to present the cover art for my novel entitled My Brother, My Friend, My Enemy. Based very loosely on part of my family history, this is the story of two brothers who find themselves fighting on opposite sides during the American Civil War. Much of the research done for I Will Give Them One More Shot was also used in the novel. Copyedit work is underway, with the intention of having the book ready for release by Thanksgiving.  It will be available through Amazon.com and Kindle.

Great Honor and Great News

I've just returned from a trip to Atlanta, where I was greatly honored to receive the 2012 Award for "Excellence in Research Using the Holding of an Archives," presented by the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board (GHRAB).  Once again, I would like to thank Ralph Bass of the Monroe County Historical Society for nominating I Will Give Them One More Shot for this honor.

I was all set to add a plea to all my Georgia friends to please contact their legislators and the governor to request that the Georgia Archives remain open to the public.  As I sat down to write this, I came across a news item saying that partial funding has been restored, allowing the Archives to remain open to the public for two days a week, with no appointment needed for access.  This is really great news for researchers.  The article can be read here.

While I am happy to pass along the good news about the Archives being kept open, I would like to temper that with the awareness that the staff has been reduced to just three employees, with the rest having been laid off.  The shortage of staff to assist researchers will still cause restrictions in accessing records.  Hopefully, funds can be found to give these employees their jobs back. 

Online Research

With the closure of the Georgia Archives, many historians are searching for other research sources.  During my research for I Will Give Them One More Shot, I was fortunate to stumble on many online sources of information. Over the next several posts, I would like to share these in hopes that they might prove useful to others.

Newspapers were an especially rich source - full of news items, posted letters and even advertisements.  The Digital Library of Georgia site gives views of several important Georgia newspapers, including the Atlanta Southern Confederacy, Milledgeville Federal Union, Columbus Enquirer, Macon Telegraph and many others.  This website can be accessed here.  You will need a DjVu player installed on your computer to read the files - the player is a free download here.