Civil War Roadtrip of a Lifetime

A rattling good, fun, light-hearted, thought-provoking read.

 

The mission statement of John Banks’ Civil War blog is “let’s keep history alive.” In his latest book A Civil War Road Trip of a Lifetime, the Pennsylvania native shows that the memory of our Civil War is alive and well across the country, and in the most out of the way spaces, he is able to touch upon those “mystic chords of memory” by interviewing fellow Civil War buffs determined that their particular slice of our great national tragedy isn’t forgotten.

Written in the spiritual vein of Tony Horwitz’s legendary 1999 travelogue Confederates in the Attic, the author documents with a twinkle in his eye and a spring in his step the multiple strands of Civil War remembrance across the nation. Whether its sweating through a scorching May reenactment of the Battle of Resaca, taking a President Lincoln-shaped Oreo cookie on a tour through the environs of Harper’s Ferry and Sharpsburg, or trudging through the thick forests to explore the heroism of U.S. Colored Troops at the all-but forgotten Battle of New Market Heights, John’s story telling talents bring out the epic with the absurd.

John Banks' latest book, A Civil War Road Trip of a Lifetime, is available directly from the author who made be contacted via his Facebook page or at jbankstx@comcast.net.  

It's a fun book, easy to read, and ultimately thought-provoking. You find yourself riding shotgun with the author as he crisscrosses the country, perhaps morphing your own experiences trying to connect with the Civil War past, sharing with him the successes when he comes across something particularly poignant, and sharing his sadness (such as in Philadelphia) where memory of the war seems ever so distant and forgotten.

The book totals about 300 pages but is a quick read. I received my copy in the mail Saturday afternoon and by Monday evening had completed it. The author, with a solid background in journalism, struck the right mix of good hard-hitting history combined with an exceptionally smooth-flowing narrative that allowed me to gobble up the chapters like crackers with a bowl of soup.

It’s a softcover book but is printed in color which really sets off the ample photos Banks took during his road trip documenting the people he met and the places he visited. I was quite impressed with the production job done by Gettysburg Publishing and having self-published a number of books on my own, I know what a task it can be to layout a book loaded with images. Kudos for a job well done.

In part, I enjoyed the book so much because John and I have shared some of the same experiences over the years. I’ve had the pleasure of “dirt fishing” with Stan Hutson in rapidly developing Murfreesboro, Tennessee, hiked up and down the rolling hills of Perryville, Kentucky, and have been awed by the beauty of the battlefield of Antietam. But I really enjoyed hearing about out-of-the-way places that I’d never seen like Robert’s Switch, Tennessee, Trevilians, Virginia, and Marion, Arkansas. Who had ever heard of the Battle of Dug Hill?

John Banks' latest book is in my opinion a rattling good read well worth adding to your Civil War library. With a tight, well-written narrative and an eye for the unusual, its sure to inspire and give you a chuckle or two. 

You’ll meet a fascinating cast of characters throughout; everyone from relic hunters and collectors, hardcore living historians and farbs to ghost hunters and mystics, to regular everyday folks wishing to reconnect with their past by walking in the steps of their forebears. I’ve never heard of the Shadow King, or gone ghost hunting at Gettysburg, or heard the spirits speak to me at the saddest place in America, Andersonville. But the author treats all with a sympathetic eye as ultimately, we all suffer from the same malady and conundrum: we desperately wish to reconnect with the 19^th century while trapped in the hectic go-go-go culture of the 21^st century.

You get the sense from many of the accounts that folks feel they are laboring mightily and largely laboring in obscurity in a race against time. I was rather stunned to learn, for example, that the Trevilian Station battlefield, site of the largest all-cavalry engagement of the war and located in the Civil War haven of Virginia which has hundreds of acres preserved land, sees scarcely a handful of visitors per month. Relic hunters in Murfreesboro feel they are racing against time to unearth whatever they can save before the relentless bulldozers of progress forever change the landscape.

Viewed in this respect, the author’s injunction to “let’s keep history alive” serves both as a call to arms and a challenge for folks to connect. We are not alone in our fascination with the Civil War, but we are outnumbered. However, if we all do our parts to “keep history alive,” we will ensure that the lessons of that conflict will not be lost for our children and grandchildren.

A highly recommended book that I think you’ll find is a fun summertime read, loaded with good stories of Americana, and a compelling call to look in our own backyards for the forgotten stories of our past. Let’s keep history alive friends, let’s all keep history alive.

 

In the interest of full disclosure, John Banks helped inspire me to start up this blog. A number of years ago, I came across the remarkable memoir of Philo Pearce of the 11^th Connecticut in a local library. I found John’s blog while researching the 11^th Connecticut and reached out to him about the discovery which he was kind enough to share on his blog. I loved his blog and his unique talent for connecting with the past and decided that I would follow in his footsteps by starting up my own blog primarily focused on presenting seldom seen or all but lost and forgotten firsthand accounts from our Civil War veterans. Today’s post marks my 750^th post since opening shop in June 2017 so a tip of the kepi to John for inspiring me to do my part in “keeping history alive.”