As a historical fiction writer, my basic style is taking real characters, researching their lives, following an actual time line and then writing a story around that.
In my book “A House Divided Against Itself” the story centers around four characters, all real people who grew up in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It is based on a true story. The historical fiction part is the dialogue I fabricate.
In this story, every character even if only mentioned once, is a real person and in a real situation.
My hours and hours and hours of research have led me to the discovery of over 90 letters from the participants. I also have detailed regimental histories. I peruse the military files of the individual soldiers.
The combination of all the materials allows me to track daily where the troops were and what they were doing, in the military sense. The letters let me know what they were thinking or feeling, and how they were handling the war as individuals.
Persons familiar with Gettysburg and the Jennie Wade story will already know the ending of my book. What many Civil War enthusiasts will not know is the beginning of the story, which has never been told.
The beginning of the story contains the details on how two brothers, Wesley and William Culp, end up facing each other on the battlefields.
While most everyone has heard the expression “brother fought against brother”, it is quite rare to find two brothers who literally fought against each other. And for these particular brothers it happened not once, but twice.
The war definitely split their house in two, both during the war and long after the war.
Readers of A House Divided Against Itself will receive the satisfaction that radio announcer Paul Harvey described when he said “and now you know the rest of the story.”
A House Divided Against Itself is available on line at www.boboconnorbooks.com or at amazon.com. It is also available on all e-book formats. The author may be reached at author@boboconnorbooks.com.
Thank you for posting this, Mary Beth!
ReplyDeleteWow, just wow! I have to check this book out! My father was in Vietnam and so was his (and my cousin). They were both on the same side. My Dad survived, thankfully, but our cousin did not. I can't imagine two brothers against each other in battle.
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