“If I Can Get Home This Fall”: A Vermonter’s Letters from the Civil War, and A Newly Discovered Painting
The book: Norwich Bookstore on November 5. The painting: Vermont State House on October 29
Tyler Alexander, a teacher at Champlain Valley Union High School, will be speaking about his new book, If I Can Get Home This Fall: A Story of Love, Loss, and a Cause in the Civil War, at the Norwich Bookstore on Wednesday, November 5 at 7:00 pm. He is an 8th-generation Vermonter whose family settled in Glover, Vermont during Thomas Jefferson’s presidency in 1804 and continued to live and farm there for two centuries.
“The book includes a timeless collection of elegantly written letters by a Vermont soldier [Dan Mason], (who served in the 6th VT Infantry and later became an officer in a Black regiment—the 19th US Colored Troops) to his wife throughout the course of four terribly long years. The Pulitzer-Prize winning historian James McPherson said, “These are some of the best and most moving of the thousands of Civil War letters I have encountered.” These letters—and other source material from the time—tell us much about what Vermonters thought about national identity, race, and the meaning of democracy.
Coupled with harrowing accounts of combat at places like Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Petersburg is a heart-wrenching love story of a young man and woman from northern Vermont who dreamed of a post-war life together.”
And here is a “what a coincidence” experience. At the moment that I was reading the press release about the book, I received another press release, this time from the Vermont State House, which told this story: Upon finishing his book, Tyler Alexander searched online for a suitable image for the book’s cover and discovered a long-ago 1872 painting of the Vermont Brigade at Chancellorsville by famous Civil War artist Julian Scott (born in Johnson, Vermont.) The owners in Houston, Texas told him the large oil on canvas would soon be up for auction. And then the painting was purchased a few months ago by Vermont Country Store owner Lyman Orton, (whose collection of Vermont art at the Southern Vermont Arts Center was reviewed on Artful (click here) two years ago.) This Wednesday, October 29th from 4 to 6 pm, a public reception will be held at the Vermont State House to unveil the painting for the first time. According to a press release issued by the Vermont State House:
“This painting was unknown until Alexander discovered it, and Orton intends to loan it to the State House over the course of the next year. It will hang adjacent to Scott’s other masterpiece, the massive 10-foot by 20-foot “First Vermont Brigade at the Battle of Cedar Creek” which hangs in the ornate Cedar Creek Room in the heart of the State House.”
(Photo, top, by permission of Tyler Alexander. Photo, center, courtesy of Vermont State House.)
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, Next Avenue, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.