How To Win A Prestigious Book Award!

By Thomas J. Ryan · Originally published January 2017 · p. 34

Book Review Editor’s note: After our column in the November issue about distinguished book awards given by several Civil War Round Tables around the country, we decided to ask one of our veteran book reviewers, Tom Ryan of Bethany Beach, Delaware, how it felt when his book was bestowed such an honor. Here’s his story.

By Thomas J. Ryan Writing is a demanding, yet self-rewarding craft. Motivation to meet its demands stems from the people who find your prose interesting and enjoyable. Recognition of your work by a peer group, however, is the equivalent of reaching nirvana. Nirvana visited the Ryan household in June when the telephone rang, and on the other end was John Zervas calling on behalf of the R.E. Lee Civil War Roundtable of Central New Jersey. To my welcome surprise, John’s group selected my book Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign as the recipient of the Bachelder-Coddington Literary Award for the best book about Gettysburg in 2015. A press release announcing this prestigious award states, “This year brought forward several excellent candidates: While [the] decision was a challenge, our members found one winner to be most true to our tradition … ‘Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign.’” The award is given to the work that “most significantly contributes to the knowledge of the Gettysburg Campaign or to its memorialization.” It is named “for the two most preeminent historians of Gettysburg, and this award encourages the continuation of their legacy.”

The process of putting this book together is rooted in a month-long trip visiting Civil War battlefields in 1995. After serving 35 years in intelligence-related capacities with the Department of Defense, my goal in retirement was to visit the sites of our country’s deadliest conflict. Proceeding from home in Maryland, I drove through West Virginia and Ohio to Lincoln country in Indiana and Illinois. I crossed the Mississippi River into Missouri and south into Arkansas before re-crossing the river into Tennessee. From there, I went down into Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, returning via Louisiana to Alabama and Georgia, before heading back home through the Carolinas and Virginia. Visiting innumerable sites and meeting people from all walks of life along the way, this trip covered over 6,000 miles and imbedded the geography, history, and persona of the Civil War into my psyche. Desiring to share this information with others, I contacted Woody West, editor of the “Civil War” page of the Washington Times. Beginning in 1997, the Times published more than sixty of my articles and book reviews over the next twelve years — including several dealing with intelligence operations. Expanding selected articles for publication in Gettysburg Magazine from 2003 through 2005, I wrote a five-part series titled “A Battle of Wits: Intelligence Operations during the Gettysburg Campaign.” Recognizing these articles were the basis for a book, I divided them into seventeen chapters, and researched the details over the next few years. Since retirement and beginning a new career as a student of the Civil War, Gettysburg became my second home. As a member of the Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg (Gettysburg Foundation), I attended its seminars and musters, as well as the bi-annual Gettysburg National Military Park seminars that featured various aspects of the battle. Maintaining a broader perspective over these years, I continued to travel extensively to other cities, towns, and battlefields to absorb the essence of the Civil War era. It was instructive to learn what occurred in places that ranged from Wilmington, N.C. to Jacksonville, Fla., Biloxi, Miss., Sharpsburg, Md. and Wrightsville, Pa. Having served in intelligence operations, that subject became my primary research initiative. It was evident that intelligence had played important, yet historically undervalued, roles in the outcome of Civil War battles. The number of books published on this subject was minute, and out of proportion to its impact during the four-year conflict. In particular, of the 70,000-plus books written about the Civil War, not one focused on intelligence operations of opposing armies in a particular battle. My goal was to remedy that omission, and the result that evolved over some 15 years was Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign. Fortunately, Savas Beatie, Ted Savas’ publishing firm in California, agreed to turn this research into a published product. The Bachelder-Coddington Literary Award for 2015 provides recognition to a small army of dedicated colleagues, friends, and family who played important roles in the development and fruition of this project. Foremost among them is my wife, Fil, who partnered with me from beginning to end, and to whom this work is dedicated. An announcement, I’m told, will soon be made that Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign will be the recipient of a second major literary award. This second award will truly be icing on the cake. While the creative art of writing remains its own reward, it is nonetheless inspirational to know that an unseen audience is applauding your accomplishments.