Civil War books based on newspaper stories
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September Suspense by Author Dennis F. Frye |
June 22, 2012 ·
A new Civil War book by the chief historian at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park uses previously untapped sources to offer a look at pivotal events that took place during Civil War in September 150 years ago.
Dennis Frye spent two years researching information for September Suspense, Lincoln’s Union in Peril
by reading newspapers of the era which offer a different perspective on the
war.
Frye said thanks to technology he was able to read 1862
newspapers from all over the country that were previously not available to
researchers.
“Number one, a lot of them just didn’t exist. Number two for
those that did exist they were in repositories and collections managed by
curators and we weren’t allowed to touch them,” Frye said.
“And so what’s changed is this: digitations,” he said. “Now
historians can literally sit in front of their computers and read newspapers
from 1862 from all over the country.”
Frye said newspapers are a new resource that he predicts
historians will utilize more now that they’re available electronically.
Frye calls this period in 1862 the worst time of the whole
war for President Lincoln and his Republican party because things were going
badly.
“This whole period is one of Confederate initiative,
Confederate momentum, and Confederate opportunity and ultimately what they
hoped would be Confederate independence,” he said. “And it was a terrible time
for the United States
and we know the Yankees ultimately win the war but nobody was talking about
Yankee victory in 1862, it was all about the Confederates.”
Fry calls this period the nadir of the Lincoln
Administration when Confederates were invading northern
territory or taking back territory they had
lost.
Click on the link to hear more about Dennis Frye’s book September Suspense, Lincoln’s Union in Peril.