Civil War resonates with Americans
because of familial interest, Shaara says

Why do stories of the Civil War have an enduring appeal?

Because they’re unique and personal, according to a celebrated Civil War author.

Jeff Shaara says the Civil War resonates with Americans because of that uniqueness and because today’s citizens have ancestors who fought in it, so there’s a familial interest in the war.

“The American Civil War was not fought over religion or territory, but over an idea, a philosophy,” Shaara emphasizes. “Ours resonates in a way that a war for land or for booty does not.”

Shaara has written 11 novels about the Civil War, World War II and other historical conflicts. But it wasn’t until after the 1988 death of his father, Michael – author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War saga “The Killer Angels” – that Jeff began writing.

In 1996, he published “Gods and Generals,” a prequel to his father’s work, and has been writing stories about wartime ever since. “A Blaze of Glory,” published this year, tells the story of the Battle of Shiloh, fought in Tennessee in 1862.

“I don’t write war books,” Shaara states, “I write people books. I’m a storyteller and I’m just trying to go back to an era. I’m excited about the characters and I’m excited to be there and I tell you what I see and hear.”

Shaara claims the key to his book research is “finding who the voices are going to be.” That involves reading a lot of letters, diaries and creating what amounts to a composite character.

“The other essential part of the research is to go walk the ground,” he added. “I’ve spent a lot of time in nearly every battlefield I’ve written about.”

Battlefield cemeteries also are “enormously moving,” he noted. “Certainly Shiloh is one and the more obvious one is Gettysburg.”

And, the author has a special feeling for Civil War re-enactors.

“I have enormous respect for those people,” he said. “What I admire is their passion for getting it right and the passion they bring to the subject matter. Some of them are walking in the footsteps of their ancestors and, believe me, they know their business.”

Shaara, incidentally, was in uniform during the filming of “Gods and Generals.”

“But,” he comments, “don’t blink or you’ll miss me.”