Ink, Dirt and Powder Smoke: The Civil War Letters of William F. Keeler, Paymaster on the USS Monitor

Author:   Charles W McLandress
Publisher:   Seal River Publishing
ISBN:  

9781738726905


Pages:   696
Publication Date:   07 December 2023
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
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Ink, Dirt and Powder Smoke: The Civil War Letters of William F. Keeler, Paymaster on the USS Monitor


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Overview

"William F. Keeler's superbly vivid letters from the USS Monitor and USS Florida are essential classics for Civil War scholars and amateurs alike. His letters from the Monitor provide the most complete picture of life on board a Civil War ironclad. His riveting accounts of the battle with the CSS Virginia, naval expeditions up the James River, the Peninsula Campaign, and the sinking of the Monitor off Cape Hatteras on December 31, 1862 bring an immediacy to events that makes the 21st century reader feel part of the action. Keeler also plays a starring role at the USS Monitor Center in Newport News, Virginia where a life-size model of the be-spectacled Paymaster can be seen seated in his cabin writing a letter to his ""Dear Anna,"" while in another part of the museum he can be overheard reading from his nail-biting last letter as the clank of chains, the crash of waves, and the frantic cries of sailors can be heard in an exhibit depicting the sinking of the ironclad. His equally colorful letters from the Florida provide one of the most compelling pictures of life on board a vessel on the Union blockade, a hugely important, but largely overlooked, chapter of the war. Up to now readers have relied upon Robert Daly's two volumes of Keeler's letters published in the 1960s. However, due to space constraints substantial portions of Keeler's letters were edited out. Not only does this render the letters disjointed and difficult to read, it also leaves the reader with an incomplete picture of William Keeler - husband, father and friend. With his focus on naval aspects, Daly also paid scant attention to many of the people mentioned in the letters. These include not only Keeler's family and friends, but also navy and army officers he encountered along the way, many of whom were unsung heroes of Civil War. Daly also provided little contextual information about the military situation, making it difficult for all but the expert reader to easily follow the letters. All of this is remedied in Ink, Dirt and Powder Smoke, which is a complete and unabridged version of Keeler's letters from the Monitor and the Florida. With more attention paid to the people mentioned in the letters and a more in-depth account of Keeler's fascinating and eclectic life (dry goods merchant, iron founder, Forty-Niner, orange grower, newspaper correspondent and more) this new edition makes his letters accessible to a new generation of readers."

Full Product Details

Author:   Charles W McLandress
Publisher:   Seal River Publishing
Imprint:   Seal River Publishing
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 3.50cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.916kg
ISBN:  

9781738726905


ISBN 10:   1738726908
Pages:   696
Publication Date:   07 December 2023
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.

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Reviews

"William C. Davis (Civil War historian; author of Dual Between the First Ironclads, 1975): ""For generations now, Robert Daly's edited two volumes of letters of Union naval paymaster William Keeler have been essential classics for any study of life aboard a Civil War ironclad warship or a Union blockade vessel. In Keeler's case the vessels were the immortal USS Monitor, and the USS Florida. Unfortunately, constraints of space prevented Daly from publishing the letters in their entirety, with the result that a substantial portion of Keeler's observations were edited out of the published books. Charles McLandress, a great-great-grandson of Keeler, remedies that loss in his new edition, which presents every letter in its entirety. His ancestor's vivid descriptions of daily experiences on the rivers and coastline of Confederate North Carolina are unsurpassed, and they close with equally interesting descriptions of the Florida's final posting in the Gulf of Mexico at the end of the war. . . . A bonus in this new edition is the addition of several letters Keeler wrote years after the war containing further recollections, and his corrections and comments on some recent publications touching on the career of the Monitor. McLandress has done a skillful job of illuminating the letters with frequent contextual commentaries, and excellent annotation to identify people and places mentioned in the letters. The editing is useful but never intrusive, and several photographs of fellow officers from Keeler's scrapbooks illuminate his exciting life and times during the war. This is surely the definitive edition of Keeler's wonderful letters, and a major contribution to the naval history of the Civil War and the nation."" David A. Mindell (professor of history of engineering and manufacturing at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; author of Iron Coffin: War, Technology, and Experience Aboard the USS Monitor, 2012): ""This new edition of William F. Keeler's letters brings the most important source for the experience of the USS Monitor again to a broad audience. Keeler told us, in an engaging, exciting way, what it was like to experience the Civil War Navy first-hand, and to be part of its most famous - and terrifying - new ironclad experiments. Keeler was at once a Civil War everyman, and a keen social observer. Kudos to McLandress for making these letters accessible to a new generation."" James M. McPherson (emeritus professor of history at Princeton University; author of Battle Cry of Freedom, 1988: The Civil War Era and War on the Waters: The Union and Confederate Navies: 1861-1865, 2012): ""I am delighted to learn that you plan to publish an unabridged edition of Keeler's letters to his wife. This will indeed be an important contribution to Civil War studies as well as to the biography of what certainly was an interesting and complex individual. Keeler's letters, so far as they have been published, [provide] fascinating and important insights on the war, and especially on the career of the Monitor, and a complete edition will enhance their already considerable value. I think they will measure up to the best of the many collections of Civil War letters that have been published, and are certainly among the very best of naval letters, which are considerably more rare than army letters. I wish you Godspeed in this important enterprise."""


Author Information

Charles W. McLandress is a great-great-grandson of William F. Keeler. A life-long American Civil War enthusiast, he has read extensively on the subject. He received his PhD in Meteorology from McGill University in 1988 and has been an atmospheric scientist for more than 30 years, with over 60 publications in peer-reviewed journals (27 of which he was first author). Charles lives in Toronto, Ontario with his wife and two children. More information about William F. Keeler can be found on Charles' webpage: www.sealriverpublishing.com.

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