FREEDOM! C.S.S. Planter’s Last Voyage

C.S.S. Planter’s Last Voyage is now published! I came across Robert Smalls’s story a few years ago and was amazed I’d never heard of him. I determined to do my best to see that other Americans become aware of what he did. I thank Rick Taubold, editor of Fabula Argentea, for including this story in the April 2024 issue and helping to fulfill my quest. I’ve invented some dialog but stuck to the historical facts as best I could determine them — with one major deviation. Fort Sumter never fired on the Planter. I just couldn’t resist shooting off those big cannons in my story, however. I hope you’ll enjoy it. It’s a story of which we all may be proud. https://fabulaargentea.com/index.php/article/c-s-s-planters-last-voyage-by-robert-walton/

Robert Smalls

CSS Planter’s Last Voyage

TPT is having a sale tomorrow and Wednesday. I have a new unit to share: The Great Escape — a Civil War readers theater script, of CSS Planter’s last Voyage. Included are the script, pre-reading vocabulary activities, comprehension activities and answer keys.

The script is an historically accurate account of a true and undertold Civil War story. CSS Planter’s Last Voyage relates the amazing feat Robert Smalls achieved early in the war. Robert, a lifelong slave himself, led a crew of enslaved men in seizing a Confederate warship in 1862 and sailing it out of Charleston Harbor. They made it to the blockading Union ships with their families on board and achieved freedom

Do check it out! https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/…/The-

Still Remembered, still noted!

Composer Randol Bass created “A New Birth of Freedom” for the United States Marine Band in 2009 and it includes the text of President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. I performed it yesterday with the Monterey Pops orchestra. With conductor Carl Christensen’s help, I got the timing exactly right; the orchestra played great; and Lincoln’s words did the rest. The U-Tube link is below. Abe gives the address about forty-five minutes in, but I think you’ll find listening to the whole concert worth your time. Hope so! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkLmv0ml7yY

Always noted, long remembered!

Composer Randol Bass created “A New Birth of Freedom” for the United States Marine Band in 2009. It includes the text of President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Monterey Pops director Carl Christensen included this piece in his 4^th of July program and asked me to read Lincoln’s words. I am most honored! Join us at Devendorf Park in Carmel for a great concert! https://www.montereycountypops.org/post/a-celebration-of-freedom-independence-day-2023

The Civil War returns to San Lorenzo Park!

Harriet Tubman told her stories and sang her songs. A battlefield surgeon did the best he could and explained his craft to our students. Our kids marched to Gettysburg and listened to Lincoln. It was a great day for all.

Teachers and re-enactors created a dynamic civics classroom at San Lorenzo Park on May 12th. The students of Chalone Peaks Middle School participated with energy and intelligence. They emerged with experiences they’ll remember their entire lives, lessons about honor, sacrifice and the price of freedom for all.  

Ivan Garcia took great photos of the day. Please enjoy his work and the efforts of our young people. https://lightroom.adobe.com/shares/12fc28d40fc84a05bcd65a2d0a5c9192?fbclid=IwAR18PaWW3Rz–aacNhqMEuPobol7C9kiwyCQqq8fMML8u3LBdCIlYZZYs3s

Lincoln Abides in Dawn Drums

Abraham Lincoln — 1865

         Former naval officer, world traveler and accomplished author Barbara Morris recently completed a review of Dawn Drums that I’d like to share with you.

“If my high school American history class had taught me with the same verve and passion that animates Dawn Drums, life would have been enriched much earlier through a more thoughtful understanding of human strivings, values, joys, ambitions, fears and humans’ surprising moral and physical strength.

     Robert Walton’s captivating novel about the last year (1864/65) of the Civil War is energized by the technique of telling this heartbreaking but inspiring story through the voices of the people who lived and died at that horrific time–President Lincoln, General Grant, Clara Barton, and fictional characters who blend into the action as smoothly as silk. 

     Two poignant poems, “Dawn Drums” and “Silent Drums,” which bookend the story capture the tense mood of the immediacy of battle–of “damp drums, tapping, four by four…to march through dawns’ uncertain door” –to war’s end when “the drums lie tilted, battered and still.”

         I had three main take-aways from this engrossing book. First, the needless, grisly carnage of hand-to-hand combat, which in one battle killed 7,000 soldiers in just eight minutes. Walton’s descriptions of battle are so vivid that I shuddered to hear the thunder of the cannons, the insistent crack of barrages of gun shots, the blood-curdling screams of wounded men, the high whinnies of terrified, white-eyed horses and the clang and clatter of tin cups, canteens and spent rifles as dying men slumped to the blood-soaked earth.                                                 

      Second, by including the voices of the people from every level of society, from President Lincoln on down the chain of command, including volunteer nurses and freed black men serving as soldiers, stretcher bearers and drivers of medical carts, we get a well-rounded sense of life on the battlefield, around the campfires and in officers’ quarters.  

     Third, Dawn Drums offers a unique view of President Lincoln. Walton invests Lincoln, whom he deeply admires, with fully developed humanity.  We aren’t just told what a kind, gentle and thoughtful man he was; we see it in his stern, but playful upbringing of his son, his sympathy and practical assistance to a distraught mother, his compassion and solicitude for wounded soldiers from both sides. These specific details, emblematic of most of the characters, are what drew me so forcefully into the book. Almost every time that I stopped reading, it took five or six seconds to shake myself back from the tumultuous 1860’s to the present day. It’s wonderful when a book can transport a reader that intensely. Other critics online have described the book as“riveting, brilliant and superb.” I agree 100%.

     I must reveal that the author, Bob Walton, is an email pen pal of mine.  We were introduced, via email, by a mutual friend. We’ve never met but exchange our writings occasionally. Bob is a retired history teacher in California, a Civil War Reenactor, a poet and an award-winning author of books for young adults and up.”   

Dawn Drums is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Drums-Robert-Walton-ebook/dp/B00C4ZH1VU/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1665970278&sr=1-1

The Civil War after Covid

Battle is joined.

Teachers and re-enactors created a dynamic civics classroom at San Lorenzo Park on May 20th. The students of Chalone Peaks Middle School participated with energy and intelligence. They emerged with experiences they’ll remember their entire lives, lessons about honor, sacrifice and the price of freedom for all.  

We began our day at King City Cemetery by honoring Civil War veterans buried there. Students read “Shiloh”, a great poem by Herman Melville. President Lincoln offered remarks about the difficult, crucial service the soldiers rendered. A rifle volley, a hymn played by Chris Andrew and taps ended our ceremony. We then marched on to battles, seminars and the Gettysburg Address.

Ed Haskell took great photos of the day. Please enjoy his work and the efforts of our young people.

Confederates march

Anxious Confederates

Union soldiers fire.

Cannons fire.

Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth share stories about the lives of slaves.

Lincoln gathers his thoughts before delivering the Gettysburg Address.

The battle continues.

Brother kills brother.

Lincoln’s words uplift.