A
couple of years ago, my publisher asked me to become a board member
for Historical Truth 101. It is a society organized to collect, edit,
publish, and distribute non-renewable historical resources.
Basically, they collect many first hand accounts from war veterans
their stories to preserve them for the future. Yet the society goes
deeper than that as you can tell by their name.
The
reason I joined is because I have certain goals as a Civil War
historian to erase many falsehoods being taught incorrectly today
about that war. Not just the causes of the war, but also many myths
are repeated as facts today about incidents in the war itself.
I’ll
give you a minor example. Colonel Opdycke at the Battle of Franklin
stood behind his men with his pistol drawn. He held the revolver by
the barrel and anytime one of his men became scared and broke for the
rear, he would strike the man on the head. This resulted in the
handles being broken and destroyed. It was a noble and brave thing as
he could have been killed so close to the action, yet years after the
war he seemed to forget that he’d written this in his official
report. He began to write about how his had broken his pistol over
the heads of Confederate soldiers instead. In an attempt to paint
himself a bigger hero, he distorted the truth. Today, there is a
famous author who painted a picture of Colonel Opdycke attacking
Confederate soldiers and this myth is believed by many historians.
That
is one reason I accepted a position as a board member of Historical
Truth 101. The site contains many interesting articles about
different parts of history and from time to time you will come across
some of mine. There is a free membership and you will receive a
newsletter monthly via email. In the future I’m planning to correct
a few myths of the war and have them posted on the website. Below is
a link to the site and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in
history.
