A Brief Book Review

I've just finished reading Robert Dunkerly's Redcoats on the River published by Wilmington-based Dram Tree publishers. I know the publisher well, and the author is also an acquaintance. Still, I hope to provide an objective look at this book.

The information in the book is excellent. There was certainly a need for such a book in the catalog of works on the American Revolution. More attention has been focused on the southern campaigns over the past decade or so, and this book focuses specifically on the region of the Cape Fear River and its tributaries. The book is extensively illustrated with both period images and modern photographs of locations and reenactments. There are abundant maps included, mainly reprints of historical maps. The book is chock full of good information and is very comprehensive. End notes are extensive, there is an Appendix listing all engagements in the region, another listing historic sites and markers, and the book includes a glossary. The book is thorough to say the least.

My issues with the book are mainly issues of editing. The quality of the individual chapters is very uneven. Some chapters are excellent, while others could have used more editing. It is readily discernible what material the author was most comfortable with because those sections of the book read much more smoothly and efficiently. However, there are a number of things in the book that really bothered me. There are numerous instances of redundancy; the author will make a statement twice within the same page, sometimes no more than a paragraph apart. Often the phrasing of the repeated statement is verbatim. The author sometimes uses the same phrase or combination of words in the same paragraph. Also, the author sometimes repeats definitions within the text. The most obvious example is the word "abatis." It is defined the first time it is used, which is appropriate. However, it is redefined almost every subsequent time it is used, which is unnecessary. I would be willing to bet the definition is in the glossary as well. These instances of redundancy should all have been edited out.

The chapter that deals with the internal civil war within North Carolina during 1781 is tedious and many of the books shortcomings are present within the chapter. While I realize there was a lot of material to cover, this chapter is much longer than any other in the book (approximately 40 pages) and reads like a seemingly never ending stream of small skirmishes and horrible actions against civilians. Eventually, it becomes confusing. Also, the author has a tendency to rely on a lot of anecdotal stories and incidences to make his points. Some of these are well documented, while others are not documented at all as far as I can tell. In one instance, the author admits that an anecdotal story is attributed to a less-than-reliable source and is probably not true. I appreciate the author's honesty in sharing this information, but I wish he had done it a bit more.

Finally, there are minor errors that could be easily corrected. There are typographical errors throughout. There are also a number of instances where a term or name is spelled differently at different points in the book. Even if there are different contemporary spellings (and the author points many of these out), the author should pick one and stick with it; furthermore, the editor should ensure this consistency.

Though I've nitpicked this book to death, I really did enjoy it and think it's a valuable contribution to the history of southeastern North Carolina. I should frame the book in the context of the publisher's mission. Dram Tree aims to publish correct, factually based history that is not academic or scholarly in nature. They do this pretty well. Their books usually contain End Notes and other academic trappings, but the books they publish are not considered scholarly. Dram Tree wants good historians who can write like novelists and tell a good story. Rather than subscribing to the old idiom "don't let the truth get in the way of a good story," Dram Tree believes that sometimes the best stories are the truth. Taken in this context, Bert Dunkerly's book is one that should be read by anyone interested in North Carolina's revolutionary era.

My Career as a Historian - Part Five

My junior year of college was time to start getting serious about history, and resulted in a couple of changes to my academic program. In fall semester I was slated to take my first upper level history class. I wanted to register for History of Ireland, which at the time was taught by the most senior member in the department, Mr. Walser Allen. Mr. Allen (he did not have a PhD) was easily 70 years old, and I'm sure much older. He had been in the department for a very long time and it was his final year teaching. The class was closed, so I decided to try to add it on the first day of the semester. When I arrived, I found a seminar room made for 25 people was packed with over 40 students wanting to take the class. Obviously there was no getting in and I never got the opportunity to take a class with Walser Allen.

I had registered for a seminar on 20th century Europe with Dr. Michael Seidman, my old Western Civ II professor. The first day of class he took me aside and said that he doubted I was ready for such an intense class. This was a senior level seminar and I had not ever taken an upper level class. Upon this advice I dropped the class and replaced it with US Since 1945 with Dr. Robert Brent Toplin. Dr. Toplin was great. He was a bit absent-minded, but he was a good professor. Like any novice history student, I made some pretty stupid comments in that class over the course of the semester, but the more seasoned upper classmen always made sure to correct me! My friend Carl was in the class with me, which made it very enjoyable. My term paper for that class was about media coverage of the Tet Offensive of January 1968, a topic that I would revisit later in my academic career as well.

Also in the fall semester I found myself back with Frank Ainsley again, this time for Historical Geography of North America. That was a great class, and put me one step closer to making an academic change. I also had American Literature II with Dr. Keith Newlin. While I didn't perform very well in that class, I really did enjoy it. We had to do group projects, and my group was assigned to examine the Beat generation of the 1950s. What a great assignment, especially since I was studying that time period in my history class.

Spring semester I had two history classes. First, I was back with Alan Watson to take his Colonial US History course. A number of friends, including Carl, took that class with me. I did a term paper on religious toleration in colonial Pennsylvania for that class. I also had a class called Practice of History, which was a newly developed historiography class for undergrads. Professors took turns teaching it and that semester it was taught by Dr. Bruce Kinzer, who was the department chair at the time. We had to write a term paper (topic of our choosing) and since I was already researching in the colonial field I chose to write a paper on religious toleration in colonial North Carolina. So that semester was all about religious toleration in colonial America for me.

By this point, I was also President of the UNCW History Club, renamed the Chroniclers. My sophomore year the club almost fell apart. Many of the members had graduated and there was no one to take over the club. My friends Jeff and Carl, and I decided to take the reigns and try to keep the club going, which we did. Jeff served as President that year and then I took over because Jeff was graduating. Bruce Kinzer agreed to be our new faculty advisor for Jeff's tenure, and we then recruited Michael Seidman to take over when I became President.

Finally, in spring of my junior year, I took another (and what turned out to be my final) education course, Instructional Design. The class was supposed to teach us how to write lesson plans. The very first day of class the professor told us that what he was going to teach was what the state required all teachers to be able to do. However, in real life and practice we would never use these skills and would develop our own way to do things. That was the last straw for me. Why was I wasting my time learning things that I would never use? I completed the class, but at the end of my junior year I decided to change course. I dropped out of the Watson School of Education and took on Geography as a double major. I wasn't terribly sure what I'd do when I graduated, but I figured I had time to get that sorted out. I knew that I didn't want to be a teacher and suffer through all those education courses for nothing. I was involved in a lot of different things, including campus recreation and intramural sports, working as a sports official and site supervisor. I thought maybe I'd finish my studies then transition in to that field after graduation. Whatever I did, I knew it wasn't going to involve the public school system.

My Career as a Historian - Part Four

I look at my sophomore year in college as the year I really started to "find myself," for lack of a better phrase, and to figure out where my future was really headed. I felt pretty confident going in because I had all the Western Civ/Global History surveys behind me and I was going to take US History, certainly something I felt I could handle much better. It also ended up being a year in which I first became acquainted with three more mentors.

First semester I had the first half of the US History survey. My professor was Dr. Alan Watson. Now of course, I was not aware of Dr. Watson's status within the realm of North Carolina history, but I soon learned. I loved his class, though most students found it boring and tedious, and generally struggled. His teaching style was very similar to my old high school teacher Mr. Maxwell. I found him to be engaging, demanding, but fair, and possessing a sense of humor that I think few students even picked up on. This class ended up being the first A on my college transcript, since freshman year I had struggled to get Bs. One other thing I liked about the class was the textbook. Dr. Watson used America by George Tindall and David Shi. So when it came time to choose my professor for US History II, I consciously looked for someone who used the same text.

I also took my first Education class in that fall semester, Teacher, School, and Society. I hated it. I thought it was a bunch of crap. I put very little effort into it, slogged through, and got a C. This should have signalled something to me, but I figured it was one class, one professor, and things would get better. You know how those introductory courses can be, right?

Spring semester introduced me to two more mentors. For US History II, I decided to take Dr. John Haley. As my friend Jack Fryar has said, John Haley was the "suavest dude" to ever teach history at UNCW. Dr. Haley was great and had a lasting impact on my career, as did Dr. Watson. Over the next few years I would spend a lot of time with Dr. Haley, either in his office or out on the back steps of the building where he preferred to take his smoke breaks.

I also had my first geography class this spring semester. It was Intro to Human Geography taught by Dr. Frank Ainsley. Over the next few years, I would take five more classes with Dr. Ainsley. After taking his Intro class I decided I would take as many geography courses as I could to fill in my "collaterals" for my teaching cert. I already had one under my belt with the past year's political science course, and I had to have at least one collateral from three different areas. So, while I was taking Dr. Haley's US History and Dr. Ainsley's Intro to Human Geography, I also took Survey of Economics. This class was an economics class for non-business majors and it was sort of a "learn economic principles and theories by studying everyday life" type of a class. We learned about economics by looking at current events. Our textbook, such as it was, was a very brief collection of articles about basic economic principles applied to the modern world. A lot of my classmates hated this class, but I found it mildly interesting.

Two more Education classes rounded out my sophomore year. School Learning was really an educational psychology class, and Basic Concepts of Math was a math course designed for Ed majors that was supposed to teach us how to teach math. It was probably the most interesting math class I've ever taken, but I was glad to be done with my math requirements once it was over. After all, I was never going to teach math. So it was one more year in the book and three new mentors to help shape my career. It turned out to be a pretty good year.

My Career as a Historian - Part Three

In order to keep these posts to a manageable length, I am going to break down my college and grad school years into a few posts. So here we go with Freshman year.

When I arrived at UNCW, I registered as an Education major since I planned on being a high school teacher. So I got an advisor in the Watson School of Education. In our first advising session he explained to me that since I wanted to teach high school I would have to change my major to History, and take the Ed courses needed to receive certification (basically, there was no degree in Secondary Ed at that time at UNCW; one simply majored in their subject area and got certification through the Watson School). I would also have to take a certain number of courses in collateral areas (i.e. geography, political science, economics, etc.) as well to receive Social Studies certification.

One of the first people I met when I moved into the dorm was Carl Williams, a friend to me still today. Carl was from Kinston (ironic, huh?) and was a history major. There were also a few other history majors living on my hall and I immediately began picking their brains about which professors to take. They all told me something different and that's when I realized I was going to have to experience the faculty for myself. Carl also introduced me to the student group Fellowship of Christian University Students. I became very active in that group, served as an officer, and maintained my membership throughout college. The campus minister Bob Haywood and his assistant Jim Sims were both very influential to me and I met more friends than I could ever count in that group.

First semester freshman year my advisor signed me up for Western Civ I with Dr. Larry Usilton. The class was Monday and Wednesday at 6 p.m. Two factors combined to make this a difficult class. I am of the opinion that no advisor should ever have a first semester freshman take Western Civ I. Most high school students don't get a whole lot of exposure to that particular area of history, making it somewhat difficult. That, combined with the time of the class made it very difficult for me. I had never taken night classes and this class was hard. I did my best, but at semester's end I was a few points short of a B. However, I was given a gift. When I went to the professor's office to find out how I had done on the final exam he looked over my grade, and noticed that I had missed no classes. He asked if I was a history major and I said I was. He said getting a C in my first history class wasn't a good way to start out and gave me the points needed to push me up to a B. I was eternally grateful, and though I never took another class with Dr. Usilton he was always one of my favorite people in the department.

Dr. Usilton was the faculty advisor for the History Club my freshman year. The History Club was a student organization for history majors. We had a monthly meeting where a faculty member would give a brief presentation and as a university sponsored group we were given a small budget for projects. That year the group decided to take a late fall semester trip to Washington DC. In mid-November a bunch of us piled into a university owned 15 passenger van and embarked for DC for a weekend. I was the only freshman on the trip and I realized how naive I really was. The only thing I really remember about that weekend is getting drunk in the hotel bar with a couple of the older students. The History Club would play a major role in my college career from that point forward, and never again did it involve alcohol.

Second semester I had two history courses, Western Civ II with Dr. Michael Seidman and Intro to Globabl History with Dr. Ravi Kalia. Western Civ II was much easier than the first half of the class had been and I really liked Dr. Seidman. I was really starting to feel more comfortable. Dr. Kalia's class was more difficult. The class focused on Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Dr. Kalia was from India, but he wasn't one of those dumpy looking professors that I had seen in the math department. Ravi was a playboy; convertible sports car, Armani suits, etc. He loved food, drink, and women, not necessarily in that order. He was also my new advisor since I had officially become a history major. Though I liked him and he had a big influence on me, I still got a C in his class. It was also in his class that I met one of my best friends, who I still communicate with to today, Jeffrey Baynes. Jeff and I struggled through that class together. He was a few years older than me, but a little delayed in his college career. Jeff and I became study partners and friends, and would take other classes together in later semesters.

That second semester I also took my first political science class, American National Government with Dr. Earl Sheridan. Dr. Sheridan was an excellent professor and active in the community, holding office in the local NAACP. This was during the administration of the first President Bush and I remember fondly Dr. Sheridan referring to the Pres and VP as "Brother Bush and Brother Quayle." I thoroughly enjoyed this class and would return to take more political science classes in the future.

I took no education classes my first year, so I was still on track to be a high school history teacher. It wasn't until my Sophomore year that I would start to think about changing my career path.

My Career as a Historian - Part Two

Installment two of this self-reflective narrative will cover the years 1985-1991, basically my middle school and high school years. This is probably the point in my life where I was least involved in history, oddly enough.

My family left rural southwestern PA in September 1985 to return to eastern NC. Looking back on things, I find it very interesting how the decisions my parents made really did effect my long-term track in life. I often wonder what I'd be doing had we stayed in PA? But even more minute than that, where my parents chose to live when we returned to NC determined a lot, including which school I would attend. Though we lived closer to Jacksonville, I attended school at Swansboro. We were so close to the district boundary that had I jumped the fence behind our house and walked 100 yards down the road I would have attended Tabernacle Middle/White Oak High instead. As it turns out, I found a number of mentors at Swansboro that greatly influenced me. In middle school we took World History in 7th grade and, of course, NC History in 8th. I don't remember much about 7th grade World History except my teacher was a very large African-American woman who spoke with a heavy lisp and her name was Ms. McLean. I also remember sitting at a table with a bunch of cut-ups who always got us in trouble. Finally, I remember that every Friday was current events day and each of us, with a partner, had to go to the front of the class and deliver a current events report, newscaster style. My friend Kevin and I, obviously not taking this assignment seriously, gave the WWF wrestling report each week. How I passed, I'll never know.

8th grade NC History was a different story. Everyone dreaded the possibility of having to take that class with Mr. LeCount, who was the football coach. He was terribly boring (though I loved him as a PE teacher), taught the whole class by putting up overhead sheet after overhead sheet, and yet his class was still extremely difficult. I lucked out and got Mr. O.B. Maxwell, my first Swansboro mentor. Mr. Maxwell was an older, country gentleman who came to school wearing Dickies work pants and plaid flannel shirts. His face was very rugged and he had a full beard year round. Though his hair and beard were gray, his mustache and part of his beard was stained yellow from chain smoking his whole life. He was also the girls' softball coach and in the summer he had a baseball card business. He travelled around to card and hobby shows and bought, sold, and traded baseball cards. He taught at both the middle school and high school, which at that time were right next to each other (in fact, the middle school used the same cafeteria as the high school). I loved his NC History class and made sure to take him for two more classes in high school. He took us on a field trip to Tryon Palace. Unfortunately, I'm sorry to say, I don't remember a damn thing about it other than the fact that we went there. I apologize to my many friends at Tryon Palace, but it's the truth.

Freshman year of high school I met another mentor, Elaine Sioufi (who oddly enough, a number of years after I graduated, married O.B. Maxwell, who is now deceased). She was my Civics teacher as well as one of the two coaches of the Academic Derby team, of which I was a member for three years. She was a great teacher and a big supporter of me personally. Her coaching partner, Susan Casper, was the school librarian and also a wonderful lady. When scheduling classes for my sophomore year, I had an option to take World Civilization or World Geography, another favorite subject of mine. I was informed that it was the last year Geography would be offered and since Mr. Maxwell was the teacher I jumped on it. Junior year I had Maxwell again for US History. I had one other mentor in high school who, believe it or not, was a math teacher. I had him three of my four years and his name was Joe Hicks. He was a great guy, and still teaches at Swansboro today.

Throughout my middle school and high school years I was involved in other things as well, particularly music. From 7th-9th grade I was in band, and from 10th-12th I was in chorus. For five years straight I was involved in the annual high school musical (no Disney jokes, please) and even had the lead role my junior year. I was also active in my church's youth group, and youth and adult choirs. Most people who knew me during these years thought that I was destined for one of two things. Some thought that I would major in music and go on to become a music teacher. I loved music, but I knew I wasn't that talented, so the thought never even crossed my mind. A lot of other folks, particularly at church, thought that I would one day become a Presbyterian minister. I'm not sure what ever gave anyone that idea, but I've never seriously entertained it, so go figure. All along, I held on to this notion that I had formed in 4th grade of being a Social Studies teacher. However, I had modified that goal somewhat and decided that I'd rather teach high school than elementary school.

My senior year it came time to start the college application process. I had always wanted to go to a small private Presbyterian college like St. Andrew's or Montreat. Then I realized how much more they cost than state universities and realized that's the route I needed to go. I applied for the NC Teaching Fellows scholarship, which required me to apply to at least three schools. UNC-Wilmington was my first choice, but I was having trouble coming up with 2nd and 3rd. I wanted to apply to UNC-Asheville but my mother talked me out of it because she said it was too far away. I had no desire to go to a big school like Carolina or NC State, and I damn sure wasn't going to go to ECU because that's where EVERYBODY from Swansboro went in those days, and I wanted to get away from those people! So, I applied to UNC-Charlotte and NC Central. Yep, that's right, NC Central. That pretty much sealed the deal; no matter what happened, I was going to UNCW. In hindsight, I'm so very glad that I didn't get that scholarship. I would have been trapped into teaching for at least four years, and along about my junior year I decided I no longer wanted to be a teacher, or at least not in that sense. So in August of 1991 off I went to UNCW to embark on the next chapter. NC Central continued to pursue me, offering huge minority scholarships, well into my sophomore year, when they finally realized that I had no interest in transferring.

John C. Calhoun

Thanks to one of the new blogs on my blogroll, Elekratig, for point out that today is the 227th birthday of John C. Calhoun. Calhoun, in my opinion, is one of the most important political figures of the antebellum period. So Happy Birthday to John C.!

My Career as a Historian - Part One

One of the things I've always contemplated doing with this blog is to sort of write out my career in the history business. This will serve at least two purposes: first, it will be very retrospective for me; and it will also give some of you blog readers out there a little better idea of how I got to where I am today. I don't know how many posts this will take, nor how many days/weeks/months it will take me to get around to finishing this little "project." Check back for updates as I can put them down. So with that introduction, here's Part One.

I've been interested in history for as long as I can remember. I grew up listening to story records about Andrew Jackson, Daniel Boone, and Davy Crockett. My school classes regularly took trips to various historic sites around the area, and we took family trips during the summer as well. Though I was born in NC, I spent 10 years of my childhood in southwestern PA. Some of the sites I remember visiting as a kid include Fort Ligonier, Old Bedford Village, and of course Gettysburg.

My interest in history ran deeper and was fostered much more than by simply visiting these and other historic sites. My maternal grandparents, and aunt and uncle were all very involved with the local historical association, now the Somerset County Historical Center. The second weekend of September each year they all helped out with the annual Mountain Craft Days festival. So, as soon as I was old enough, I was enrolled in the Junior Historian program. We had monthly meetings where we learned about the area's history from various museum staff members. We also were taught historical activities such as wool carding, using a drop spindle, etc. Each of us had to carve our own wooden spoon (I still have mine, and let me tell you it's pretty crude). We were also trained to give tours of the farmstead to visitors, and had to do a certain number of volunteer hours as tour guides. Each of us was supposed to dress in "pseudo costume," meaning that the boys wore 18th century shirts with jeans and work boots, while the girls wore frontier style dresses. My grandmother made my shirt, which I also still have. I call it my first ever bit of reenacting gear. During Mountain Craft Days we were all "apprenticed" to one of the craftsmen. On winter days, when it wasn't busy with tours I spent a lot of time in the museum's research library, reading about my family history (as you can imagine, the place was a big genealogy center).

At about the same time, I had my first great Social Studies teacher. It was 4th grade at Shanksville-Stonycreek School, K-12 all in one big building. His name was Fred Cotchen, and he was just a cool guy. I loved his Social Studies class, which was more geography than anything else, as I recall. His brother-in-law was none other than Jeff Hostetler (of NY Giants Super Bowl fame), who at the time was a college QB. He came to visit our class and us 10 year old boys were star-struck. By the way, if you lived in that part of PA you were likely either a Penn State fan or West Virginia fan. People loved the Steelers, but there weren't too many University of Pittsburgh fans around. I'm not sure what it was about Mr. Cotchen's class, but he made me want to be a Social Studies teacher. I held onto that notion well through middle school and high school, and at least partially into my college career before changing my mind.

Two years later, my family moved back to eastern NC and so this makes a good stopping point for now. I left a whole world filled with history behind, not sure what there would be to take it's place. All I knew of Jacksonville and Onslow County was Camp Lejeune and the beach because when we had come down on vacations that's where we spent all our time. It would take me years to find the rich history that surrounded me.

Interesting Post on "Civil War History"

Take a look at this most recent post on the blog Civil War History entitled "Considering the Rifled Musket." It is all about looking at a rifle musket as an object for material culture study. Probably nothing new to most of my readers, but just a reminder that there are different ways to look at and interpret everything.

Ongoing Reading Binge

Since about Thanksgiving I've been on a pretty torrid reading binge (at least for me). It all started with some things I had to read for a work-related project, then two book reviews back to back, and I just decided to keep it going. I plowed through Alan Watson's history of Bath in two days, which isn't unthinkable since it's not a very long book and is well-illustrated. Now I'm on to Victoria Bynum's Unruly Women for the aforementioned work-related project, and continuing my increased interest in the 18th century, Bert Dunkerly's Redcoats on the River. If you'd like to know more about any of the things I've read recently or am currently reading, there are Amazon.com links on the blog's sidebar. I'll be interested to see how long I can keep up this pace before I have to take a break, and then, how long a break I'll take before starting another round.

Busy Few Days

I've spent the past couple of days in two of my favorite places in eastern NC. On Wednesday I was in Morehead City to do a lunch time presentation for the Friends of Fort Macon. The topic was Union Navy Actions in Onslow County, the same program I gave less than a month ago to the Sons of Union Veterans in the same town. I have a number of friends in the Fort Macon group and it was nice seeing them. It was actually quite a crowd, probably 30 or so. I also took the opportunity to drive down to Fort Macon (the Friends meets at a local restaurant) and check the progress on their brand spanking new "Coastal Education Center." The building looks really impressive and should be open sometime late summer or early fall. BTW, what's up with the fancy names for these buildings? Can't we just call them Visitor's Centers like we always have, or is that not sexy enough to secure funding anymore? I hope that when this new facility is open the park administration does not lose sight of the historical significance of the location in favor of doing a bunch of nature programs. Its not that the natural history and environmental history of the area isn't important, but I have a problem with how organizations in Carteret County tend to overlap in their programming. The NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores, the NC Maritime Museum at Beaufort, and to a lesser extent, Fort Macon duplicate (or triplicate?) the same type of environmental, nature type programming. How about some history folks!? Why do a maritime museum and a Civil War fort have to duplicate the programming that is being legitimately accomplished at the aquarium? Just my pet peave....In their defense, they both do some excellent history programming; however, I still think they could do more of it and leave the nature stuff to the folks over at the aquarium.

Yesterday, I was in New Bern primarily to talk to an adult education class that is studying the Civil War in New Bern. My friend Bill Hand teaches the class and asked me to come speak about the Confederate Navy in NC and the expedition against the USS Underwriter. While I was in New Bern, I took the opportunity to visit friends at Tryon Palace. All in all, I've had two lovely days this week.

New Blog of NC Civil War Interest

Someone emailed a link today for a new blog devoted to the Battle of Newport Barracks and other miscellaneous NC Civil War topics. I met the author, Eric Lindblade, a summer or two ago when he served (briefly) as the Summer Historian at Fort Macon State Park. I add the "briefly" in there because he didn't finish out the summer at the park, but rather took another job somewhere else. Oh well, you win some, you lose some, I guess. Anyway, his blog looks interesting and I'm adding it to my blogroll. Take a look when you get a chance.