Books, books, and more books

Having gotten a new piece of furniture for my living room, I decided to put it in the spot where I have a make-shift book case. Actually, its a TV stand that I was using prior to getting my entertainment center. But the stand is piled at least 2 feet high with 2 stacks of books. So in the course of trying to rearrange furniture, I have a dilemma.

Now I love my books. My books are my best friends. But WHEN did I accumulate so many of these things???? Fortunately, I do have places to put them and spent about an hour today moving them around. But it dawned on me that the majority of my books have something to do with the Civil War. Actually, I found THREE books that weren't Civil War related (I should note here that these are ONLY the books in my living room....I haven't even begun to go through the books in my bedroom). Hmmmm...makes you wonder where my interests lie.

The reason I'm talking about this is because recently there was a guy who I had come into contact with who wanted to know all things about the Civil War and Gettysburg and didn't want to read. He wanted those of us who DID know these things to tell him everything. But we all spent many, many years reading and studying the Civil War to come to the level of knowledge that we have attained.

I will never claim to have all the answers, I am no where near being an expert, but I am a little farther advanced than the novice when it comes to my Civil War knowledge. I rely on my books to help me understand the big picture of what happened. We can be on the battlefields and study the terrain, but until we read someones account or an after action report or someones interpretation of these events, how can we understand? The written word is what brings it all together. Now, I'll use Gettysburg as an example because I live here, but even when you are on the field, you really don't need a book to understand the battle....we have a ton of monuments, markers, etc that tell the story for you....but you still need to READ.

I still find myself buying books on certain aspects of the Civil War, whether its a campaign, a battle, a biography or whatever, but I'm getting to the point where I have entirely too many books dedicated to the Gettysburg campaign....so I'm concentrating on 1st person accounts. The diaries, journals, personal memoirs of the common soldier who fought at Gettysburg is what intrigues me the most nowadays. As a matter of fact, I just ordered a book from Amazon that was written by Private John Haley of the 17th Maine. Can't wait to sink my teeth into this book.

I guess what I'm trying to say, after all this, is that without books, we can never fully understand the Civil War. We need to sit down with a book and read it to be able to gain an understanding that can surpass the textbooks from high school. What we need to do is READ. Run to your favorite bookstore (new or used). Run to your local library. Run to a friend who has entirely too many books (who could I possibly be describing?). Borrow books, buy books. Do whatever you have to do to get your hands on them.....but read! This is how we learn!