“Such a Woman,” Biography of Octavia Walton LeVert – Move Over Scarlett!

Few other Southern Belles can measure up to the writer and antebellum celebrity Octavia Walton LeVert. In Such a Woman: The Life of Madame Octavia Walton LeVert, Paula Lenor Webb takes a semi-narrative approach to telling Octavia’s story, beginning with her grandfather’s prominence as one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, to her…

Civil War Times and “Beast Butler”

I’m going to divert this week just a little and toot my own horn for a second. If you subscribe to Civil War Times – and you should if you don’t – and you turn to the review section toward the end of the December 2021 issue, you’ll find a narrow column that yours truly…

Debunking Antebellum Architectural Myths

I was recently allowed to borrow a recommended book from a friend. She thought I would enjoy it, given my interest in antebellum architecture. I’ve visited so many historic homes throughout the south that, after a while, the stories told by the docents and tour guides become somewhat repetitive. Others have ben conflicting and contradictory…

Book Review – Gabriel, A Novel of the American Civil War

Recently, I had to fortunate privilege of acquiring and reading a book that I might not have normally picked up in a bookstore. Usually if I take a chance on historical fiction – especially Civil War historical fiction – I pick a book that follows a character that I know I’ll become attached to. I…

Book Review – The Secrets of Mary Bowser

The novel, The Secrets of Mary Bowser, while not historically accurate on many accounts, is a thrilling and incendiary (in a good way) story of a black woman Union spy in Richmond, Virginia. This book has it all and then some, when it comes to highlighting the racial prejudices and injustices that the black populations…