By Rachel Konieczny
News Editor
Of the nearly 20 books Christopher Mackowski has authored on the Civil War, he said his most recent is a different type of project.
“Seizing Destiny: The Army of the Potomac’s ‘Valley Forge’ and the Civil War Winter that Saved the Union” tells the story of how the Army of the Potomac rebuilt itself after the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, a question seldom asked, according to Mackowski.
Mackowski, Ph.D., professor of journalism and mass communication, said the book focuses on the space between the battles of the war.
“People like the battles—that’s where all the action took place,” Mackowski said. “That’s where all the interesting, cool stuff, the most dramatic events take place. So all of that downtime between battles just gets overlooked in general.”
Mackowski, editor-in-chief and managing editor of the Emerging Civil War series, coauthored the book with historian Albert Conner, Jr. Mackowski said Conner approached him after completing a majority of the research and asked him for help with the writing portion and revisions.
“It’s really [Conner’s] research and then because I know a lot of the history there because of some of the other books that I’ve written, I was able to flesh things out,” Mackowski said. “So maybe 20 percent is stuff that I’ve researched and added in, but the main ideas and the main premise is all [Conner].”
Mackowski said the book is different from his other work because he is typically involved in building the book “from the ground up.”
“This was a book that pretty much was first drafted and was done, and I was asked to go through and shape it, rewrite it, concentrate on the writing aspect of it,” Mackowski said. “So really, I was less historian this time and more writer-editor.”
Mackowski said he hopes readers come away with a better knowledge of how the Union Army achieved a complete turnaround and recognize that “in the white space, stuff happens.”
“It was a fun opportunity for me to learn something new about the war,” Mackowski said. “That’s one of the best things about being a writer: there’s always something new to learn.”
koniecrc14@bonaventure.edu
