Story Research

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

http://www.cincinnaticwrt.org/data/ccwrt_history/talks_text/moffat_soldiers_pay.htm

I do lotsa research to ensure the story is accurate. Writing a Civil War story I start with the pay and the paymaster system. If my character deserted it was likely about money or want/destitution at home. One of my ancestors, at the end of the war, deserted when his wife died and their kids were alone. About 1 man in 7 was ever punished for desertion. So if Ma sent Sonny a letter with news about no allotment in a while, Sonny assumed a bureaucrat back home was stealing the money and giving Ma a rash of bullshit. If Sonny couldn't get a leave from his Colonel, he went anyway, and returned when the bureaucrat fixed the error or died unless the provost marshal caught Sonny first. The pigs, as the provost guards were called, usually caught Sonny coming or going. And that's a whole nuther area of research. What sorta people were the pigs? It wasn't unheard of for prisoners to murder sadistic pigs and return to camp unescorted.

http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/110.html

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Moving along, the plot requires the derailment of a prisoner train so the principal actor can escape.

http://books.google.com/books?id=xY...onepage&q=CIVIL WAR TRAIN DERAILMENTS&f=false

Derailments between Nashville and Chattanooga, Knoxville and Chattanooga were common during the Civil War. Both armies used the same rails to move troops, as control shifted from one side to the other. Its how the South replaced its wornout engines and cars....let Sherman and Grant have a stretch of road long enough to replenish switch yards with engines and cars, then raid the place to capture the equipment.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Historical fiction needs color. So I found an account of a soldier executed for desertion. Executions were pretty much the same from one place to another. Tho men were hanged some of the time. Ambrose Bierce was one of the rare writers who soldiered during the Civil War, and captured several events on paper. His OCCURRENCE AT THE OWL CREEK BRIDGE is about a military execution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuP5kUQro40

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1861/december/execution-deserter.htm

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

MINIE BALL WOUNDS

http://comestepbackintime.wordpress...ivil-war-medicine-part-3-minie-ball-injuries/