I have been collecting my thoughts and research to begin my book. Over the weekend, I finally sat down and just started writing. It felt like a very important step in my life and even though I figure it will take a good while to finish, I am very happy to report that I have finished the first chapter of my book. I am going to post a teaser from chapter 1 here. Please do not reproduce. Home, it is a simple word that can hold so much for a person; no matter where you were born and raised, that place will always hold a special connotation to you. The old saying, “home is where the heart is” rings true for millions of people, and I am no exception. I was born and raised in the small Ohio valley town of Ceredo, WV. Last census numbers have the city around 1,500 citizens[i], it truly is nothing special to the outside observer, nothing more really than a nice little place to stop along the famous “Midland Trail”. This outside perception of plain, uninteresting, small town life is what I grew up thinking for most of my early years.
 
The perception is much different from reality for my little hometown, the town of Ceredo was founded during the most tumultuous time in American history, it was founded right in the middle of a disputed territory and the reasons behind its founding are quite unique. Ceredo was founded in the late 1850’s as the United States was being torn apart by sectional differences; the argument can be made that the founding of Ceredo is a perfect illustration of that division. Ceredo is on the border of Kentucky and Ohio so, at the time, it was the absolute furthest place west in the Old Dominion. It was this location, at the very edge of slave holding territory that would bring abolitionist eyes to the area.
 
The founding of Ceredo was no accident, there were very distinct reasons for the founding of the town, the location of the town and for the early government as well.  Ceredo was founded as an experiment of sorts, the idea was that northern land speculators were going to buy up land in slave holding states and establish towns that were fueled on the back of free labor, not the slave labor that had built the south. This was a revolutionary idea, especially when the state being targeted was Virginia. The man behind the idea for Ceredo was a man who had experience founding free labor colonies in the bloody Kansas territory during the 1850’s, Eli Thayer
 All rights reserved.
Copyright Matthew A. Perry 2016 

[i] Census.org

NOTE: I AM NOT A DR, NOR KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT MEDICINE, THIS IS AN ADVICE AND DISCUSSION COLUMN NOT MEDICAL ADVICE. 
​
I will hearken back on the fantastic advice given to me by a published writer, "write what you know", well he intended that to mean my obsession with the Civil War era, but this blog has nothing to do with history at all. What I "know" in this instance is something that I know better than any historical topic, I live everyday with this and want to be part of the crusade to kill the stigma surrounding it. 

I have obsessive compulsive disorder, it was quite difficult to write that sentence, I hate labeling myself but I was inspired over the last week by multiple things that have shown me not to be ashamed. A year ago, writing this post for all of my friends, family, co-workers and complete strangers to read would have made me physically ill, but I cannot let this control me anymore. 

What is there to gain from writing this? It's hard to really pinpoint, I'm not huge about the idea of labeling myself, but I feel it is important for people to know that they aren't alone. I am still on a crazy journey trying to my peace within myself and I feel that the journey will be a life-long struggle. I just want to be part of the solution of killing the stigma, correcting stereotypes and helping people see that it affects more people than you would ever realize. 

Lets start with the basics, I have been diagnosed with mild OCD and anxiety disorder, this diagnosis was given to me as an adult, but I have struggled with these things since my teenage years. I and my family have known I have obsessive tendencies for as long as I can remember. This is where I aim to kill the first stereotype, I don't go around flipping light switches, counting random things or any real noticeable tic. I am not poking fun at people who do that, I just know that is what everybody assumes OCD is. I don't jump over cracks or mess with my clothes or hair constantly. I, quite simply, obsess over human interactions and my environment. I am not a clean freak, quite the opposite, but I want things in the place that I have designated for them. 

The human interaction aspect is really hard to explain; I am not a social recluse, quite the opposite. I adore my family, friends and co-workers, which is probably the reason that this is such a trigger. I can't stand when something goes wrong in conversation, if I make somebody angry that I care about or if a friend of mine is unhappy with me. I cringe when something goes amiss while talking with others or if I mis-speak. For example, I jokingly insulted a friend of mine. I thought it was a joke but my wife thought that I was being serious. She told me that she thinks my friend MAY have taken me seriously, that set me completely off, I was pacing around the house and fretting for hours. It was only until I called my friend, at damn near midnight, to plead forgiveness and beg them to understand I was joking that I could calm down. They never thought I was serious, but the thought of them thinking ill of me made me physically ill.  I can't wait till tomorrow, or brush it off and hope for the best, I must talk to the person or fix whatever my mind conceives as the problem. 

So where to turn? Well, for those of you reading this, I am not going to sugar coat it. My OCD and anxiety take constant vigilance, there are days when I wake up and I feel the weight of the world on me. I can't scroll facebook (I deleted the app on my phone and limit computer time now) because it seems every story is about death, cancer or some other terrible affliction. I can't watch the news because there is always a story that makes me fear for the life of my children. This means that it makes me sick to even watch the STUDENT news with my kids in the morning because of the way my mind works. The safety of my family and especially my kids is a huge stressor, I get physically ill when I take my kids to the pool or any place with water because I read ONE ARTICLE about "dry drowning" and I am convinced my kids are all going to drop dead from it if they intake any bit of water. I wish I were kidding....... it has stopped me from taking trips or enjoying them when I am on them.

I will be honest in saying that I hated therapy when I went and I doubt I ever go back. (I am not saying all therapy is bad, just my experience was) I have found that my greatest release is exercise and this, sitting and writing my thoughts, fears, apprehensions, joys etc down. It gives me such a release to be able to dig deep into my own mind and write it down, not share with a stranger I am paying by the hour. Therapy works for many, just not this guy. 

The last pep talk I can give to a person dealing with anxiety, depression or OCD is to find a way to minimize it. I have a terrible habit of allowing it to control my life, but I am getting better. The thing that I am focused on now is breaking free from the chains that it has placed me in before. I refuse to sit out a trip because there is a waterpark involved. I will not allow my mind to cause me to miss special moments with my kids, so I will grin, be terrified as hell and swim with my kids.   

​http://www.spreaker.com/user/mphistoricalthoughts/historical-thoughts-historical-figure-i-

Hello there! If you have followed the new podcast format you will know that I have recently recorded my thoughts on my least favorite Civil War General, Geoorge B. McClellan. Now it is time for the blog post, since the intention was to write and record as much as possible. I would love to hear and read any feedback you may have and would love to know which historical figures just drive you crazy as well! So allow me to climb on my soapbox and preach the gospel that is McClellan's failure.

McClellan was born into an affluent family with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth, his dad was a well-renown surgeon and would eventually run a surgical school in Philadelphia.(1) George was given all the best things in life and was given every chance to succeed; he would be enrolled in an ivy league college at the age of 13 and would eventually take his talents to West Point. While at West Point, George found himself a model student, he did not garner many demerits while at the academy and would excel in the classroom. He would eventually graduate 2nd in his class in 1846 and would excel in his service in the Mexican American war. In the decade before the Civil War, McClellan would leave the army and would gain a high paying job as a railroad executive in the mid-west. With the outbreak of hostilities in 1861, the governor of Ohio would ask McClellan to command all of that state's volunteer forces. McClellan would do quite the good job in Kentucky and what is today West Virginia. His ability to keep Kentucky out of the Confederacy early in the war deserves praise, and he is partly responsible for keeping Confederates at bay in the western counties of Virginia, which would allow those western counties to create the new state of West Virginia. 

All of these early success would lead to McClellan being asked to do what many saw as the impossible, reorganize and drill the Army of the Potomac after the debacle at Bull Run. What you must understand is that McClellan was a fantastic army organizer, he was gifted in the acts of training, drilling, feeding and clothing a huge army. McClellan would garner the admiration of his men for these abilities and many in Washington were quite impressed with his ability as an army organizer, but it is during the later months of 1861 that we begin to see his greatest downfall as a General emerge, his unwillingness to listen to his commander in chief, and his unwillingness to use the army he organized. 

McClellan would not advance his massive army through 1861 and early 1862, Lincoln was all but begging him to come up with a plan and execute it. Here we see some of McClellan's most disgusting acts of disrespect, he grows annoyed with Lincoln and in letters home to his wife refers to Lincoln as "the original gorilla" and a "well-meaning baboon". I have a huge problem with our greatest President in American history being disrespected by a little Napoleon wannabe in such a manner. Finally, little Mac was ready to move and outlined his peninsula campaign, which was a convoluted idea of sailing his massive army onto the Virginia peninsula and attacking Richmond from that direction. Lincoln gave his approval and Mac was on his way, but from the onset we see Mac delaying and refusing to fight armies when he encounters them. 

McClellan was always seeing boogeymen around every corner when he was in command, he was convinced that he was facing a Confederate army that VASTLY outnumbered him which was a ludicrous assumption. The problem was with whom he chose as his leader of Army intelligence, Allan Pinkerton. Pinkerton is famous for all Wild West buffs as the leader of the Pinkerton detective agency, during the Civil War he volunteered his talents to the Union war effort. Now, Pinkerton was a very capable detective, but he was an absolute disaster as an army intelligence officer. He devised this convolution mathematical equation to determine troop strength where he would take the number of soldiers he saw and do a multiplication problem with that, the result being that he vastly expanded Confederate troop strengths. Mac would listen to his reports and believe them to the man so he was convinced that he was facing an army of massive proportions.

The truth was that if Mac would have attacked Johnston on the peninsula and kept up the offensive, he would have most likely ended the war right then and there in 1862. Instead, he wastes the offensive, gets bogged down by Johnston's replacement Lee and is demoted by Lincoln in August of 1862. Mac would be given another chance to command the Army of the Potomac in September if 1862 and this would lead to his biggest blunder. 

Mac was given the greatest gift that any military leader has ever been given in the history of warfare, he was handed the marching orders for Lee's invasion of the north. Some Union soldiers found Lee's marching orders in a field and they found their way to McClellan. McClellan would not act on these orders for almost two days and would allow Lee to position his men for the fight that would be at Antietam. Even with wasting that initiative, McClellan had the opportunity to destroy Lee on September 17,1862. The fight near Sharpsburg, MD would be the bloodiest day in American history, McClellan had multiple opportunities to crush the Confederates, but he would only send his army in piecemeal rather than sending in reinforcements. This means that McClellan would allow individual corps to be decimated without reinforcing them so he would never gain the initiative. The result was a bloody draw, but even with the draw Lee was forced to retreat and Mac had the perfect opportunity to deal a death blow. Instead, he sat around Antietam creek and refused to attack and eventually after begging his general to attack for weeks, Lincoln would fire him for the 2nd and final time.

The years after his command are the most galling, He would run AGAINST Lincoln in the election on the stance that he would end the war immediately. That means that means that he was going to allow the south to gain their independence; this shows the historian of today that all of his actions as commander of the Army of Potomac are now tainted with the knowledge that he was undermining efforts of the Lincoln administration. He would spend his later life making a multitude of excuses for his pathetic performance and would die before his memoirs could be published.(2)

​So, who are the people from history you love to hate? Would love to hear all of your ideas. Remember to like the facebook page and to check out my spreaker podcast page at  

“Write what you know”, “Write what interests you”
Well, I have taken that great advice to heart and you can see that most of my posts have a 19th century lean, the reason for that is quite simple really; I am obsessed with 19th century American History and it is my area of greatest knowledge. This past summer Civil War lands and monuments were under fire from a misguided attempt to erase history; I promised myself that I would not make a blog post about my feelings on that topic, but there is something that really bugs me about the current perception of the war; there are a countless number of Americans today that believe every southerner was fighting for slavery and to keep “their” slaves. This is such a hard topic to discuss that my focus for this post will be to focus on just one aspect of the war and the motivations for the common southerner vs. the motivations for people in power in the south.
Southern Aristocracy
For sake of brevity and to be concise this will be the label of the rich people in the antebellum and Civil War era in the south. I will also refer to them colloquially as the “slaveocracy”. What you need to know is that the south in antebellum America was run by an aristocracy that depended on land ownership and the slaves that worked their lands to thrive. This DOES NOT mean that every southerner had slaves, actually quite to the contrary. According to PBS, only 25% of southerners owned slaves in the year before hostilities broke out. (1) So, why has the common theme always been that Johnny Reb was fighting for slavery? Well, that is the crux of the issue, while these men did not own slaves and probably thought very little about slavery and the Constitution, these men did react quite quickly to public furor for the war. They reacted to the fact that the north was now invading and that every newspaper is the south was having a call to arms for soldiers. Shelby Foote tells a great story about why a southern soldier was fighting, he was asked by his union captors why he was fighting and his response was, “because you’re down here”. (2)
Now, all of this public sentiment for war directly benefitted the southern slavocracy because they wanted this war but would not have had proper support if it were only about slavery. It would have been difficult for the south to even recruit states like Virginia to their cause if Lincoln would not have invaded the south after Sumter. Lincoln had no choice in the matter really, but all this played right into the hands of the southern slave owners. The slave owners would of course get the war that they wanted and it would prove to be their ruin. There are entire books written on the question of slavery’s survival if the war would have been avoided, there are many who say it was on life support before the war, but it was this constant worry about slavery’s death knell that actually sped up its death. Lincoln said many times that he just wanted to reunite the Union, but fire breathers in South Carolina and other states made the preemptive strike. It would cost over 660,000 men and 4 years of heartache, but Lincoln original view of just keeping the Union together would eventually morph into a war to destroy slavery and it would be successful.

1. PBS.org
2. Civil War. Ken Burns episode 2

There are some moments in life where I believe that we all become disenchanted with a major portion of our lives. Over the last few weeks, I have gotten bummed out at work; I just haven't felt the drive and passion for history for a few weeks. Luckily, I was reminded by many people just how important my job is. I think that almost everybody has moments like that in their careers, a friend of mine helped me gain perspective. She helped me see why I enjoy teaching and gave me an outlet to my talents. She is currently taking a college history course and has needed some help along the way with perspective and defining some of the concepts ideas involved in early 20th century history. I decided to record my thoughts and send them along, this was like a huge spark of joy for me in a time of feeling burned out. Just the act of teaching and pouring out all of this information just filled me with joy. It reminded me to be thankful for the gift of gab that I have that allows me to be a good educator. It is all about the joy, no matter what you do, don't let the down times rob that from you. 

​Matt

My writing project is still very much in the beginning stages, right now life is so hectic with work, coaching and family obligations that I simply won't have the time to go to the West Virginia archives until the spring and summer. I thought though that I would give a little preview of what I have done and what my first attempted published essay will be about.

Home, it is something that defines us all in a way. No matter where we come from, our hometowns have shaped and molded our values and morals from our infancy. My hometown of Ceredo, WV is a little speck on the map in the extreme western part of West Virginia. It is home to little more than 3,500 souls, it is a quaint hamlet that has seemed to change very little through my 30 years. The story behind the town is something that goes overlooked often, even by locals. The town was caught in the middle of fierce sectional conflicts in the late antebellum years right before the Civil War.

In the late 1850s, it was becoming very apparent that the sectional conflicts in the country were steering us towards a Civil War. The scene of some of the most violent actions in the antebellum period was the Kansas and Missouri border. See, in Kansas they were about to vote whether they would be a free or a slave states, and pro-slavery forces were constantly clashing with abolitionist forces. It was into this environment that a group of New England speculators started to buy up land and form land companies to build abolitionist cities in this violent, protested land. The idea was to make money from buying up the land and their moral reasoning was to show that communities would function without slaves quite easily in the area. One of the most famous of these abolitionist towns was Lawrence, Kansas which would have a very rocky start with multiple pro-slavery led raids into the town. 

One of the men who had a hand in all of this land speculation was a Massachusetts congressman by the name of Eli Thayer, and now Thayer's vision was moving east. Thayer decided to found his new town in the most famous and influential slave state, Virginia. He goes on multiple trips up and down the Ohio River area and decided to buy a ton of land around the area of Twelve pole Creek right on the Ohio border. He and his other founders name the town Ceredo after the Greek goddess of grain and wheat, Ceres. The goal of the town was to build a farming and manufacturing community relying completely on paid labor, no slavery at all. The backlash from pro-slavery advocates in and around nearby Huntington, WV was swift. It was a poorly kept secret that the people of Ceredo were very influential in helping slaves escape across the Ohio River, becoming a part of the famous Underground Railroad. 

Ceredo would not have a chance to flourish like Thayer envisioned, war would break out and kill the active land speculation. The town of Ceredo would survive though and would become home to the 5th West Virginia volunteer infantry that would serve through the first few years of the war, with their most famous battle being their service at 2nd Bull Run. The town of Ceredo would never make the fortune that Thayer envisioned, but the legacy of abolition gives all Ceredotonians something to be extremely proud of. 

We are all guilty of it, we tend to place historical figures on a pedestal and tend to forget that they were flesh and bones just like anybody else. When you have spent countless hours studying and learning about history, you tend to lose the proper perspective when it comes to historical figures that you revere. I am very guilty of it, I have studied the Civil War since I was in the 8th grade in Mr. Chaffins' class and there are some men whom I hold in high regard. I look at these men with something bordering on reverence. My favorite Civil War figure was Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and I understand that I cannot be completely unbiased when writing and talking about him.  I know I am not the only one, it seems that Civil War buffs like myself are some of the worst offenders. When it comes to clouded judgement of historical figures, us Civil War buffs may actually be the worst. 

Today I wanted to discuss somebody that I personally am not infatuated with, but I would venture to say that he is THE most loved figure of the Civil War by many people who enjoy learning about it, and that man is Robert E. Lee. Lee is such a fascinating figure because time has turned Lee into something line a demigod, he is so revered and so loved by the people who sing his praises that he is almost untouchable. Even when he was still alive Lee was called "The Marble Model" by his classmates at West Point because he never earned a sing;e demerit. (1) That record is insane to think about because they gave demerits for very small infractions like beds being messy and not attending chapel. It is this type of background that set Lee up for this reverence. The larger picture of Lee is that historians for the 50 years or so after the war painted him in this light that made him out to be the greatest General of his time and maybe even American History. 

There is a saying that the victors write history, but this was not the case for the American Civil War, and the reason behind this is spin control. After the war, the southern states were admitted back into the Union and the people of those states immediately had many questions to answer and many transgressions that needed to be atoned for. This led to the southern historians right after the war from the period of about 1880 to 1950 to start a huge campaign of spin control, historians now call this school of southern pseudo-history the "lost cause" historians. 

I have written two very long and involved essays about this type of historical writing, the idea behind the papers was to learn how NOT to write proper history essays, articles and books. My professors at the American Military University focused intently on this type of pseudo-history to teach us the folly of allowing our personal feelings overshadow the truth. I am going to talk about he basic teachings of the lost cause school and give my reaction to each of these. You must remember that this is my opinion, but many respected historians have debunked and left the lost cause school a laughing stock of Civil War historiography. 

1. The north invaded the south and the south had the right to defend their homeland- while this would technically be correct if you looked at Virginia and the other southern states as sovereign nations, this is a half truth because these locations were part of the United States. Lincoln had a constitutional obligation to protect his territory and when Fort Sumter was fired upon in April of 1861, he sent troops to squelch the rebellion. 

2. Slavery was not the main issue of the war- this would take up and entire blog entry, just know that lost cause historians argued well into the 20th century that slavery was a minor issue and states rights was the real crux of the matter. 

3. Robert E. Lee was by far the greatest general of the war and it was only lack of men and support that he lost.- Listen, Lee was a great general, but I don't even think he was the best general of the Confederacy (Look up Albert Sydney Johnston). Lee was very brilliant, especially on the defensive, but he is given credit for things that are overblown and his shortcomings are often overlooked. The best example of his shortcomings would be Gettysburg, after two days of fighting it had been a bloody stalemate and many of his officers like James Longstreet were begging him to fall back and find a better place to attack, but as historian Shelby Foote would say "Lee's blood was up" (2) so he concocted the idea for Pickett's charge which was a full frontal assault on a fortified position over a mile of open ground. OVER A MILE OF OPEN GROUND, it is no wonder that his army was decimated at Gettysburg.

4. Grant was a butcher and far inferior to Lee in every way. This is the big one, lost cause historians long held that Grant could not hold a candle to Lee on the battlefield, this is untrue in so many facets. These pseudo-historians claim that Grant only won the war because of sheer numbers, this could not be further from the truth. Grant outmaneuvered Lee in 1864 and 1865 all around Virginia and would bludgeon Lee into submission. Grant would also be magnanimous in victory, by giving Lee some VERY generous surrender terms when the time came in April of 1865. 

So what is the danger or harm in people having their own little spin on historical figures?  These lost cause historians and the people who still, to this day, believe in and preach the gospel that is Lee, do Civil War history a great disservice. The problems with viewing historical figures through these rose colored glasses is two fold, 
1. IT IS BORING- history is not cut and dry. I tell my students every year on the first day of school two things, history is not pretty, we are going to talk about disturbing and sad things, but that is life, and two, there is no black in white in most cases when looking at historical figures or events. What makes a great historical figure is the depth provided by knowing, and admitting, their faults and foibles. Personal quirks and shortcomings are what make the man, you need to understand all these historical figures had their skeletons. 
2. It allows misconceptions and untruths about events and people to permeate- when people chose to ignore shortcomings and refuse to talk about all sides of an event or a man, it leads future generations to continue down this path. I take my job very seriously as a history teacher, one of the things that I find the most important is to teach my kids to think for themselves and learn how to see bias in historical sources. We are all biased, but it is the job of students of history to see that bias and fix it for the future. 

Thanks for putting up with my longest post yet, I would LOVE to see comments on facebook and on the comments section on this blog. Here is a question to get us started, what historical figure can you think of has been put on one of these impossible pedestals? 


Footnotes-

1- James Roberston- Civil War Journal "Robert E. Lee"
2- Shelby Foote- "Ken Burns' The Civil War"