While Cannons Roared (H)

As usual, I was browsing looking for something else in history and biography and I 'came' across this slim volume. In looking at the reviews and the sample pages of this book, I could see that both the writing of the history and the format used by the author was something that probably would appeal to me. I was right!I take it that John M. Taylor is a known writer of Civil War history, and that much of his work is in prominent journals on military history. This book contains a series of vignettes into the "history behind the history"...the small stories about the men involved (both politicians and soldiers), and about things that happened behind the lines that impacted what happened ON the lines. One of my major complaints with history as taught in the schools, is the boring aspects of it. The same crucial facts are taught over and over again, mainly because the teachers are teaching to the tests (or to the texts). My civics classes in high school were taught that way, but I ended up in advanced placement European history in my senior year in PA. That year and that particular teacher (who loved history) instilled a curiosity about and love for history (when done right).Especially in American history and with so many children of immigrants attending our schools, it is absolutely vital that they learn not just the dates, the numbers involved, the major documentation (Bill of Rights, Gettysburg Address) but of the people involved. The small insights into the people such as brought out in this book (that Lincoln paid for a substitute, which I didn't know was done on a regular basis: about individual generals who made large mistakes in judgement as well as small and important acts of courage)...if students are regaled with these stories, they will remember the history for a lifetime, not just for the current testing period. It is those stories that I was told, such as about the woman who lost five sons in the Civil War to whom Lincoln wrote a personal letter, that I retain 30 years later. When students become personal involved in the history being taught and see the people involved as real 3-D personages, then history comes alive for them.As a nation, we bemoan the fact that our children, our schools do not do the job expected of them...that is, they do not learn or retain what they've learned. Part of this is the fault of those providing the textbooks as well as the teachers in the field. A teacher of history must love his subject matter, must constantly be reading about it, and must not be teaching in lecture format from boring textbooks. Parents should not complain, if they never pick up a historical book themselves, and provide the necessary example that learning is a lifetime project, and that history is vital to our interests today.Taylor does a great job in writing. I've rarely read such accessible Civil War history. I would highly recommend this book to enactors, to history buffs, to readers of military texts, to educators, and to those of us