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
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.
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.”
The centuries long struggle for racial justice and equality continues. I am honored to have two stories about this struggle included in the Saturday Writers’ new anthology, “Duck Plucking Time” and “Sockdologizer”.
Some decades ago, I recall sharing a campfire with an old friend. Campfire talk led us to recalling childhood experiences, his in a Jim Crow borderland state, mine in deep South Alabama. This conversation eventually sparked a fictional exploration of our shared history – “Duck Plucking Time”.
Historian Jim Bishop did a stellar job of detailing the traumatic events surrounding Lincoln’s assassination in his book The Day Lincoln was Shot.
I saw a chance to employ his work in a fictional treatment of those events. By creating characters, adding dialog and basing my story on Mr. Bishop’s sequence of events I hoped to pull young readers into the history by putting them next to the characters, both historical and fictional. “Sockdologizer” is the result. It won first place in the Saturday Writers contest for youth fiction.
Please view the teaching materials I’ve prepared for Sockdologizer on TPT. I’ve made both scripts for the story and classroom activities:
Abraham Lincoln entered Ford Theater on April 14th, 1865 and walked down the dress circle’s aisle to his doom.Historian Jim Bishop did a stellar job of detailing the events surrounding Lincoln’s assassination in his The Day Lincoln was Shot.
I created characters, added dialog and based my story on Mr. Bishop’s sequence of events. I hoped to pull readers into the history by putting them next to the characters, both historical and fictional. I was a great fan of Walter Chronkyte’s show “You are There” and tried for the immediacy that was one of its most powerful elements.
I’m most pleased to tell you that this story just won first place in the Saturday Writers “Everything Children Contest”. I hope this story, once published, will find a YA readership.
Third Flatiron’s new anthology focuses on the theme of longevity. Edtior Juliana Rew graciously included a story of mine among this collection of strong stories. “Abe in Yosemite” explores a major historical what if: how might Abe’s life have turned out had John Wilkes Booth failed to assassinate him? I got to spend time with Abraham Lincoln again, always a worthwhile thing to do, and I think I did some of my best writing. Here’s the Amazon link:
King City High School creative writing students perform “Assassination”.
Some of you might recall “You Are There”, Walter Cronkite’s great, long-running TV series. Cronkite served as host and interviewer in historical reenactments of critical events from our shared past. The show brought history to life with unprecedented immediacy. I’ve tried to capture that immediacy in a readers’ theater script about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. I based my retelling on Jim Bishop’s excellent book The Day Lincoln was Shot. By adding several fictional characters and some dialog to the events Bishop detailed, I hoped to create a narrative that would open history for young readers. I decided I needed to find some young readers and hear their thoughts!
King City High School Creative Writing teacher Ashley Russ invited me to share the script with her students. I made two visits to her creative writing class. On the first visit, advanced students Axel Solis, Irie Flores, Gabriela Valencia, Martin Delgado, Emma Deleon, and Gabriel Aguilar read the script twice and made editorial suggestions. I used their suggestions to revise my writing and took it back for a final reading. It went exceedingly well. Both the students’ performance and their intelligent comments afterward convinced me to go ahead and publish “Assassination” on TPT. Here’s the link to the script:
WELCOME!I've dedicated my life to literacy and literature for young people. I'm sixty-three and don't intend to change my focus now. I hope that this site will contribute to both! I hope it will be of use to kids, parents and teachers who love to read.
For Kids: I want to know what you think of my story! Writing can be pretty lonely and authors like to hear from readers. Ask me questions about Chaos Gate and I'll do my best to answer them as quickly as I can.
For Parents: I want to know what you think of my story! I'd also like to know how this website can best help you, what activities here are most effective and what you would like to see me include in the future.
For Teachers: I know how hard you folks work. I'm offering you effective, interesting activities to accompany Chaos Gate, whether you're reading it aloud to your class, using it in small groups, or simply have one or two students reading it on their own. I have (or soon will!) comprehension questions, vocabulary activities and word find puzzles in pdf format for every chapter. Check them out and take what suits you best.
Robert's story "Joaquin's Gold" just won the
2010 Art Affair Western Short Story Contest. The story brings legendary bandit Joaquin Murrieta back to Central California during the 1880's in a search for hidden treasure. Robert hopes to produce a book including all of his Joaquin Murrieta stories. Stay tuned.
Author • Educator • Mountaineer 
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