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Calvin Caswell

Calvin Caswell played a significant role in the life of Wells Waite Miller (the Civil War soldier whose life I’m researching). Calvin was his father-in-law—and the two of them seemed to be quite close, so it made sense to research Calvin’s life. Plus, he is a fascinating man all by himself. Tribute to Calvin Caswell In his obituary in the Sandusky Daily Register, it notes the following: “As a private citizen, as a father, a husband, a counseller and friend, Mr. Caswell was ever loving, kind, helpful and generous. Himself pure in thought and purpose, he suffered no morally loose

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Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (Allan Gurganus)

Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All is a 718-page historical fiction novel written by Allan Gurganus and published by Ivy Books in 1989. Written as if dictated to someone who visited ninety-nine-year-old Lucy Marsden when she lived in a nursing home, it tells the story of Lucy who, at the age of fifteen, married fifty-year-old Confederate veteran Captain William Marsden around 1900 and had nine children with him. This book explores issues of race through the lens of the Confederate South and serves as a journey of self-discovery for Lucy, and it stayed

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The Republic of Suffering: Book Review

Republic of Suffering The Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust is an extraordinary book that provides a look back in time to see how 19th-century Americans viewed death. She also describes how the Civil War fueled the growth of the funeral industry and the creation of national cemeteries, and caused the military to expand its functions dramatically. This book  shows the sheer gruesomeness of the war in ways that books focusing on the battles never could. In modern times, we try to fight off death, to slow down death, to focus on living

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Who Created Miss Marple?

Several years ago, I was writing entries for an encyclopedia—and the project lost its funding. So, this meant that I could use the entries I wrote in another way. One of them was titled “Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple Series” and, while I don’t claim to have a super high traffic website, after I posted it on my blog, it has consistently gotten the most keyword traffic. In fact, I have fifty-nine keywords on the subject of Miss Marple in Google’s top 100. So, I thought I’d address answers to questions posted in those keywords. Who Created Miss Marple? The creator

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What is Content Creation?

As a freelance content developer, I create content for a wide variety of businesses, both B2B and B2C, on a full-time basis. These have ranged from small mom and pop shops to a Fortune 500 company. I am a member of the prestigious, member-vetted American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA). I am a lifelong learner with a passion for research and writing, and I love it when a piece of content works well for a client. In the past, I provided a wide spectrum of content creation services, and so I’ll provide answers to FAQs that includes information about

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Wells Waite Miller Overview

In June 2018, I decided to pick a forgotten Civil War soldier, doing so pretty randomly, and then try to reconstruct his life and his world as fully as possible. Wells Waite Miller came from a farming background and attended Oberlin Preparatory School. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in the spring of 1861 in response to President Abraham Lincoln’s call for men. He fought in the heat of the battle at Antietam without injury and was badly wounded at Gettysburg during what’s now called “Pickett’s Charge.” He went on to become a noted agriculturalist and businessman, serving as the

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