Hello,
I became an independent researcher after serving nearly thirty years as a public health administrator, statistician, and demographer for the state of Illinois. Currently, I am an adjunct research associate in anthropology at the Illinois State Museum, and I am a volunteer interviewer for the Oral History program at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. I have written articles on Illinois’s history and pre-history, particularly for Illinois Heritage magazine, on behalf of the Illinois State Historical Society.
Most recently, I am the editor/author of the book “In Their Letters, in Their Words: Illinois Civil War Soldiers Write Home,” from Southern Illinois University Press. When I first started reading Illinois Civil War soldiers’ letters, I had no intention or even a notion to write a book.
I indirectly started on this research in 2013, when I was writing poems to memorialize the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. I scoured Illinois soldiers’ personal letters to understand the mindsets, speech, and everyday life of those who had lived (and shaped) that era. Subsequently for the book, I ultimately chose 165 collections only from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, which covered Illinois geography, had good provenance, were very often the original items, and were well organized. I selected the soldiers (and sailors) from various branches of the military, from the enlisted and commissioned ranks, originating from sixty-five Illinois counties, who had participated in a wide array of military campaigns, and who represented the gamut of social experiences and personal outcomes. I used quotations gleaned from their letters, adding context and background, in conveying details and stories of soldering during the war. Since the resulting narratives are often intimate and detailed, I included an appendix containing a brief biography for each soldier who, in essence, is a contributor to the book. In short, I wrote the book for which I had searched in vain when I had embarked on the poetry project.
It has been an interesting journey, from reading old mail to providing readers and researchers with a finished product. I am humbled to be a mouthpiece, or at least a spokesperson, for some of the Illinois citizen soldiers who answered the nation’s and the state’s calls for duty during arguably the most turbulent and defining period of our country’s history.
I hope you enjoy what you find and read in the book.
To reach out to me, please use the Contact Me page on this website.
Best regards to all,
–Mark Flotow
[image of author by Ginny Lee, Springfield]