From the June 18th Wilmington (NC) Star- News "Bookmarks: Making (or at least editing) history" by Ben Steelman.
Steelman writes that he had lunch with UNC-Wilmington history professor Chris Fonvielle about the upcoming symposium on the blockade-runner (hey, that's one of my ships!) Modern Greece on June 26th. I sure know one person who would really love to be at that symposium. I've written about this ship several times.
Fonvielle is a bit of a prolific author as well as probably the foremost expert on Fort Fisher and the Wilmington area during the Civil War, having written several books on the area. Now, he and another historian are editing the memoirs of David Dixon Porter (1813-1891) . Porter commanded the Union fleet in both attacks on Fort Fisher and became the second U.S. Naval officer to reach the rank of full admiral (his adopted brother David Farragut was the first)
Porter was also something of an author, having written several novels as well as the book "Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War" in 1885 and "A Naval History of the Civil War" in 1886. Porter had shopped his memoirs around extensively, but couldn't find anyone to publish it because of his scathing tongue. If he didn't like you, he said so in no uncertain terms.
Fortunately, a copy of the memoirs were stashed away in boxes at the Library of Congress.
Now, if we could get Mr. Fonvielle to write a book on W.H.C. Whiting, the Confederate general at Fort Fisher and a bit on the outspoken side as well.
Looking Forward to Reading Those Memoirs. --Old B-R'er
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