Reflections
Sometimes it takes an unusual set of circumstance to push someone into a new avocation or career. I began my journey into creative writing very late in life.
When I retired from the US Army and moved to Clarksburg, West Virginia I felt that there was a strong relationship between this small town and the US Civil War. For nearly thirty years I had picked up scraps of historical information about the town and our surrounding environs. But there just didn’t seem to be much to really write about.
There were remnants of Civil War fortifications around the area and a few historical markers about Civil War activities in Clarksburg. The original speech that was given calling for the western counties of Virginia breaking away from the Old Dominion occurred at the local Courthouse. There were some Civil War soldiers’ graves in the local cemeteries. But not much of any importance seemed to happen here.
I had collected a number of small historical articles gleaned from some local histories, but I never felt that there was enough material to justify a book, Was I ever wrong!
The first week of March 2020 I went to the US Archives in Washington DC and spent a week delving through the stacks of material stored there relative to the Civil War in Clarksburg and Harrison County, West Virginia. What I found was astounding. All of the daily ‘Orders Books’ were held at the Archives. I was able to recover an almost day-to-day history of the Civil War in Clarksburg, from the founding of the original US Army Garrison in June of 1861 through the final days of military presence in 1866. I was missing a scant three months of reports.
When I came home the following Sunday Washington DC, and the rest of the country shut down in response to the Covid pandemic. I now had the time and fortunately the research material to begin my book.
A few months later my manuscript was completed and published, I donated the book and the copyrights to the local Harrison County Historical Society. All proceeds from the sale of this book go to support the local historical society.
My journey as a writer had begun at the ripe old age of seventy-four!
My research into our local history would also generate a novel, “The Most Hated Man in Clarksburg”. This was the story of a remarkable figure who was the first regular US Army officer to arrive in Clarksburg as the Quartermaster General. He was responsible for establishing the Garrison in town. The novel deals with his trials and tribulations as an honest man among a den of thieves!
The Advisor Series
During the second year of the Covid lockdown my wife and I went with some good friends to a local state park for a picnic. It was outside in the open air, plenty of sunshine and we were able social distance in the park. Our friends were US Air Force veterans and as a result we were sharing ‘war stories’ along the way. Late in the afternoon one of my friends, Jackie, a retired nurse, told me that these stories were just too good not to be written down, if for no other reason for my children and grandchildren.
I liked the idea but exclaimed that I was a Historian and as a result I didn’t have anything to back up my memoirs. I didn’t keep a diary; we were ordered not to especially as an intelligence officer.
A friend of my son is a published author in the Washington DC area and after picking him and other from my son’s backpacking group up after one of their hikes, I discussed the concept with him.
“Well, Mr. Taylor, I’d suggest that you write a novel and incorporate your stories into that format. Oh, by the way, it’s imperative that you also add a love interest to your book. Women are the ones who generally buy books and a ‘shoot-’em’-up’ doesn’t sell to that crowd.
I took his sage advice and developed my novels centered around my time in Vietnam and added a love interest to the book, a young American Red Cross worker in Saigon.
The book, “The Advisor, Kien Bing, South Vietnam,1969-1971 led to three other books in a series that covered my three tours in Vietnam. The final volume “The Tuscarora Trail” completed the series and allowed me to tell stories that just didn’t fit into the other books. It also gave me and the reader a chance for closure for some of the other stories that were in the previous books.
So, what’s next? Your guess is as good as mine! But stay tuned I’m sure that other books will follow.
Sincerely, Pete Taylor, Author
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