1/23/14, Waterford Women’s Club Presents Civil War Love Letters

Author Lisa Saunders of Mystic presents the Civil War love letters featured in the book, Ever True: A Union Private and His Wife, published by Heritage Books. Photo by Collette Fournier.

Free and open to the public

Author Lisa Saunders will present Civil War love letters from her book, Ever True: A Union Private and His Wife published by Heritage Books, to the Waterford Women's Club. The public is invited to attend.

 

Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014, 11 a.m.

Presentation: “Ever True: A Union Private and His Wife”

Waterford Library, lower level

Admission: Free and open to the public

The Waterford Women's Club is hosting Lisa Saunders of Mystic, author of Ever True: A Union Private and His Wife, which features the love letters between Lisa’s great-great grandparents, Charles and Nancy McDowell.  Charles married Nancy when she was 15 years old on Christmas Eve in 1860. Enlisting as a private in the New York 9^th Heavy Artillery two years later, he asked Nancy to save his letters. Despite his grueling battles and marches, he was able to save hers as well. Together, their letters tell of bullets, hangings, prostitutes, venereal disease, “clever women,” and the court marshalling of a cow. Ever True is also a "readers theater." (Charles fought in several battles with the 2^nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery in the Sixth Corps.)

Lisa Saunders of Mystic is an award-winning writer, TV host, and part-time history interpreter at Mystic Seaport. A graduate of Cornell University, she is the author of several books, including the humorous and historical travel memoir, Mystic Seafarer's Trail.

 The Civil War love letters of Private Charles McDowell and his wife Nancy featured in the book, Ever True: A Union Private and His Wife, published by Heritage Books.

Photo by Larry Chester.

 

 Lisa will be joined in the reading of the letters by Captain Marcus John Fisk and Pamela Collins Fisk of New London, Connecticut.

 

Captain Marcus John Fisk has appeared in over 30 stage productions in Virginia, Maryland, Colorado and California. Most recently, Fisk was in A Christmas Carol (Scrooge), Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, 1776, Broadway Bound, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (George), in the Washington DC area. He authored the book to the Vietnam POW musical, Four Part Harmony, slated for a 2015 NYC production and was the Technical Advisor to the Discovery Channel production, Vietnam POWs: Stories of Survival, which received the 1998 Emmy Award for Best Documentary. He has just completed the screenplay, The Sea Devil, on the life of Count Felix von Luckner, a swashbuckling, chivalric German Officer who raided allied shipping in WWI. A retired Navy Captain and graduate of the Naval Academy, Fisk is a consultant with the Department of the Navy on Special Operations and Irregular Warfare. 

 

Pamela Collins Fisk worked many years as a staffer for Congressman Joe Kennedy and then went on to own and operate a Bed & Breakfast on Nantasket Beach in the Boston area.  She has modeled for various designers doing both runway and print, and was a Historic Interpreter for George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon in Virginia.  She is planning on opening another B&B at her new Victorian home in New London this spring, and is currently finishing her book, The Innkeepers Diary, to be published this summer. Pamela and her husband, Captain Marcus John Fisk, have two sons and a daughter and are expecting their first granddaughter in April. The couple now lives in New London, Connecticut. They can be reached at pcollins0404.pf@gmail.com.

 

See event flyer at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WhYlLsRaWuEHvUkuu-2kvwtz6xC9iyBYa0f-BRGJI0Q/edit?usp=sharing

For more information about the event, contact Gay Clarkson, Co-President, Waterford Woman’s Club, at gaywil@cox.net, or Waterford Public Library at 49 Rope Ferry Road Waterford, Connecticut 06385, Tel. 860-444-5805.

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Lisa Saunders to Present Ever True: A Union Private and His Wife

Ever True: A Union Private and His Wife is the story of one couple’s devotion to their country and each other in the midst of the Civil War’s infidelities, scandals and ever present threat of death. Through the actual love letters of Private Charles McDowell and his 17-year-old wife, Nancy, you will not only hear of dreams, desertions and disease, but of hangings and the court marshalling of a cow. Published by Heritage Books.

Reviews of Ever True:

"Unusual ..."American Civil War Magazine"

 

"An intimate portrayal of the relationship between a husband and wife that makes them interesting reading for anyone." Civil War News

 

"Charming and romantic in a very personal way." Heritage Books

 

"The story of how the marriage between Charles and Nancy survives separation, disease, the threat of death, and malicious gossip is compelling." Pamela Goddard, Ithaca Times

Charles McDowell married Nancy when she was 15 years old. Enlisting as a private in the New York 9^th Heavy Artillery, he asked Nancy, then 17, to save his letters. Despite his grueling battles and marches, he was able to save hers as well. Nancy’s letters give us the worries and gossip of a teenage wife during the war. Her fears for Charles are many and include:

• Prostitutes
• Venereal disease
• Bullets
• Typhoid Fever
• Lying injured on the battlefield for days
• Being taken prisoner
• “Clever women”

Nancy’s happiest time during the war was the year she spent with Charles while he was stationed at Fort Foote in Washington. She ran an apple pie business, selling 70 a day to the soldiers, and learned how to shoot a revolver. Before returning to her parents to recover from Typhoid Fever, she met Lincoln and shook his hand. Nancy was unable to return to Washington because Charles’s regiment was sent out to "chase old Lee."

 

Charles’s letters tell of the battles of Cold Harbor, Jerusalem Plank Road, Monocacy, Opequon (Winchester), Cedar Creek, the Siege of Petersburg, an attack by Mosby's Men, and the Shenandoah Valley Campaign.

 

Great-great granddaughter Lisa Saunders will tell the “back story” of her book, Ever True: A Union Private and His Wife. She is also available to present her “reader’s theater,” Ever True: A Civil War Love Story, with members of your organization if so desired. The play, which debuted at Lafayette Theater in New York, has been produced by Emerson Theater, Historical Societies, Lincoln Depot Museum and many others. Play reviews include:

 

"The audience was greatly moved... The letters of the play's characters, Charles and Nancy McDowell, bring to vivid life our ancestors' world. We travel with Charles and Nancy through the trials of camp life, the devastation of battle, and the challenges of day-to-day life on the home front. Nancy's gossip is a wonderful release when we are swept up in one of the most turbulent times in American history. At the play's end, feeling an overwhelming sense of our nation's history, we responded with raised voices to sing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," our tribute to the sacrifices of all the veterans and citizens who have preserved our freedoms and way of life." John Quinn, Event Coordinator of the 2005 Civil War Music Heritage Gathering And Encampment,New York Regimental Balladeers.

 

"Dear Lisa, I wanted to thank you for making "Ever True" possible.  The Museum of Wayne County History recently performed the play under a tent on our lawn.  The atmosphere--complete with crickets, church bells, and train whistles in the distance--evoked what Charles and Nancy could have heard.  Everyone in the audience LOVED the performance.  One man told me he was "hanging on every word."  People laughed at Nancy's gossipy chatter and fell silent when Charles spoke of men who had been killed.  The entire experience was very moving.  This production of "Ever True" was one of our most memorable events of the summer." Joe O'Toole, Executive Director, Museum of Wayne County History

 

"[Nancy] could have been the Rona Barrett of the Civil War." Sun & Record

About Lisa Saunders:

Lisa Saunders is an award-winning writer and TV host living in Mystic, Connecticut, with her husband and hound. She works as a part-time history interpreter at Mystic Seaport and is a columnist for In Town. A graduate of Cornell University, she is the author of several books, winner of the National Council for Marketing & Public Relations Gold Medallion, and continues to write for several clients. She holds writing/publishing workshops for children and adults.

 

Note: Charles fought alongside the 2^nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery in the Sixth Corps.