Category: 19th century

Napoleonic Wars history book – “The Invisible Emperor” (Penguin Press, 2018) – Mark Braude interview

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Mark Braude is a historian whose specialty is French history. He’s written a new book on Napoleon Bonaparte’s time on Elba and we discussed the book.

2:30 – Mark talks about his start in French history and how he started writing about Napoleon.

4:06 – Mark talks about the book.

6:45 – Mark talks about ideas on why Napoleon was sent to Elba. We talk about how the smaller characters in the book also become very interesting.

17:45 – We talk about French taverns and their interplay with public opinion.

20:59 – Mark talks about the historical valleys between periods of war.

22:35 – Mark talks about his research materials.

27:00 – Mark talks about a prison he visited on Elba where Napoleon had stayed before it was a prison and how this visit connects to the book.

33:24 – Mark talks about why no one has written on this subject before.

October 16, 2018 515am

43:53 – Mark talks about the women in Napoleon’s life.

49:06 – Mark talks about how he developed his skills in writing good narrative non-fiction.

53:18 – Mark talks about his research into the Michelin company.

55:59 – Mark has a website, markbraude.com

Links of interest

MarkBraude.com

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Mark Braude

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, Napoleon, British, French Empire, Elba, Campbell, Navy, Bonaparte

18th and 19th C US Army history book – “The Soldiers of Fort Mackinac” (Michigan State University Press, 2018) – Phil Porter interview

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Phil Porter is director of Mackinac State Historic Parks and has studied the Mackinac area extensively. We talk about his latest book on the soldiers of Fort Mackinac.

1:49 – Phil talks about how he got into Mackinac history 46 years ago. He’s written about US military authority after the American Revolution and he’s written another book on Fort Mackinac history.

5:27 – The book is a collection of images of soldiers who served at Fort Mackinac but also discusses the life of these soldiers and why they were at the Fort.

8:30 – Phil talks about some of the history of the British retaking of the fort in the War of 1812.

11:00 – Phil talks about the importance of the fort in the region.

18:05 – Phil talks about images of soldiers at the fort during the pre-War of 1812 period.

20:00 – We talk about uniform variations among soldiers at the Fort from the rest of the US Army.

23:31 – Phil talks about famed medical Dr. Beaumont who was a pioneer on digestive processes.

29:30 – Phil talks about relations between Native American and he soldiers of the fort over time.

31:07 – Phil talks about Civil War soldiers who had served at Fort Mackinac. One was Confederate officer John Pemberton.

36:00 – Phil talks about a soldier that served in the First Barbary War.

37:30 – Phil talks about three wealthy Confederates who were imprisoned at Fort Mackinac for a few months.

45:55 – Getting permissions to use images was a long and tedious process.

47:20 – They found a photo of soldiers playing baseball at the fort. They still play baseball at the fort at the same field.

54:43 – The parks’ books can be found on Amazon and on their website mackinacparks.com.

55:35 – Phil explains why the spelling is Mackinac but is pronounced Mackinaw.

Links of interest

Mackinac State Historic Parks

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Phil Porter

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, US Civil War, Mexican-American War, Native American, british, militia, First Barbary War, military prison, Michigan history

US Civil War history book – “The Decision Was Always My Own” (Southern Illinois University Press, 2018) – Timothy Smith interview

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Dr. Tim Smith has worked for the National Park Service and now teaches history at the University of Tennessee – Martin. He’s always been interested in the Civil War and he’s written close to 20 books on the subject. We talked about his latest book on Grant at Vicksburg.

1:24- Dr. Smith talks about how he got into history. A course on the Old South at Ole Miss got him interested in Civil War history.

2:47 – The last book on Grant at Vicksburg was Myers book in the 1960s. Dr. Smith is editing a series on Grant so he wrote this book.

4:51 – This book looks at Vicksburg from Grant’s point of view. One of his big gambles was to cross the river south of Vicksburg. Few people approved of his decision.

7:30 – Grant had a lot of soul searching during the 9 months of the Vicksburg campaign. He nearly gives up and commits to a suicidal attack but then he chooses a gamble type of move instead.

10:54 – Grant corresponded to a lot of different people and Dr. Smith had a huge amount of correspondence to go through to write this book.

13:10 – Sherman was willing to call Grant out when he doesn’t agree with him. But Grant said he never held a council of war even though he got opinions and ideas from other officers.

22:22 – Politicians and newspaper editors pressured Grant to warp up the Vicksburg campaign. People wanted him removed.

27:45 – Grant made plenty of mistakes giving orders at the Vicksburg campaign. He was good at organizing his forces but not perfect. Grant actually didn’t have a good staff and they weren’t very professional. He picked a lot of old Army friends for his staff.

31:06 – Grant was a micro-manager and probably got involved in too much of the menial issues of his army. Grant was a tender-hearted and kind person though.

38:21 – Twenty years ago you had to go to archives for research but now everything is online and at a researcher’s fingertips. One little used source is the two volume history of Grant’s post-war world tour where he discussed the war with a newspaper reporter.

42:44 – Dr. Smith grew up around Vicksburg so he has a lot of experience with the terrain there.

53:15 – His next book is on Grant’s May assaults at Vicksburg. It’ll be a major battle book with plenty of details. He is worried about the interest in the US Civil War but he hopes and thinks it might revive again as this generation gets older.

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Dr. Timothy Smith

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, US civil war, grant, sherman, confederates, union, Halleck, Lincoln, Vicksburg, Jayhawks, cavalry, attacks, july 4th