After retiring from McClatchy last spring, former English teacher Larry Tagg just released his fourth book about the Civil War, The Generals of Shiloh.
The Generals of Shiloh uses what Tagg calls a “biography as history” approach to tell the story of the Battle of Shiloh, the first major battle of the Civil War. Most books about the Civil War are told simply as descriptions of events, but Tagg’s biographical approach adds a more personal touch to events we’ve heard described so many times.
“To me, it adds to the interest of the events to know more about the people who lived them, and what paths brought them to these battles, and how they behaved when leading thousands of men into these crucibles of violence,” said Tagg.
The Generals of Shiloh tells the stories of the 66 top commanders in the Battle of Shiloh. Most of them were not military men, but rather, everyday, common men. At the time, Ulysses S. Grant was working as a clerk at his father’s dry goods store.
“Those were the surprises for me,” said Tagg, in reference to how many ordinary people with little military experience were suddenly leading armies of men.
“I loved the stories like the one of the Iowa hatter, a man who had never seen a shot fired in anger, who found himself leading thousands of men into battle because his superiors were absent or sick that morning.”
Tagg spent seven years researching these stories, only able to work on it during the summer because he had to commit the school-year to teaching English.
“If you figure seven times two-and-a-half summer months, it comes to over two years of strict attention to the research and writing,” said Tagg, adding that it often took an hour or two of research to write one sentence.
Most people would find the amount of research required for this book to be tedious, but Tagg enjoyed it.
“The research is fun, and so is writing the sentences—getting the words in the right order, and trying to throw in some rhythm and, hopefully, something literary at the same time,” said Tagg.
The months of the year he spent teaching proved valuable to Tagg’s own writing as well.
“Every day I wrote, there were a number of times I thought, ‘I just used something I teach my kids at school,’” said Tagg. He mentioned “ruthlessly taking out unnecessary words,”—a technique all of his former students are well-acquainted with.
When it comes to students who choose to read The Generals of Shiloh, Tagg hopes that “it makes you curious about a dozen more things.”
“I hope it makes you want to write—to think, ‘Hey, I could do that,’” he added.
As far as his future, Tagg mentioned that nobody has written a book about the first scary weeks of the Civil War, when Washington D.C. had no one there to protect them from slave states teeming with rebel soldiers.
“I might take a crack at that,” said Tagg.
He’s also working with a company to get his design for a computer wargame made.
“Working with adult coders reminds me how blessed I was to be able to spend my days with students,” joked Tagg, reminiscing about his years as a teacher.
Although Tagg’s presence at McClatchy has been greatly missed, students can still read his new book, catch him around town at various music gigs, or keep an eye out for his upcoming computer game.
Other than that, Mr. Tagg just wants everyone to remember to italicize book titles.