Professor turns Civil War research into nonfiction book
His book features the true story of Preston Davidson, a Hoosier and Butler student who fought for the Confederacy, as well as his family in Indiana and Virginia. It is a story that Jason Lantzer uncovered while researching a course he was teaching at Butler University.
The book, “Rebel Bulldog: The Story of One Family, Two States, and the Civil War,” looks at how a native-born Hoosier reached the decision to fight for the South and why he returned to the North after the war. Interestingly, Davidson was not only the grandson of former Indiana Gov. Noah Noble, his parents were married by Henry Ward Beecher, the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin). Davidson also knew Tom Magruder, the inspiration for Uncle Tom. Davidson’s brother fought for the Indiana Home Guard, and theirs, like many others, was a family divided by the conflict.Here’s more:
The Indiana Historical Society (IHS) Press is proud to announce the release of Rebel Bulldog: The Story of One Family, Two States, and the Civil War by Jason Lantzer. The book tells the story of Preston Davidson, a Northerner who fought for the Confederacy, and his family in Indiana and Virginia.
Rebel Bulldog examines antebellum religion, education, reform and politics, and how they affected the identity of not just one young man, but of a nation caught up in a civil war. Furthermore, the book discusses how a native-born Hoosier reached the decision to fight for the South, as well as the postwar life of a proud Rebel who returned to the North after the guns fell silent.
The book uses not just Davidson’s story, but that of his family as a lens to help readers glimpse the past. Davidson’s maternal family tree included his grandfather, former Indiana Governor Noah Noble. The paternal side had strong ties to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and Washington College (now Washington and Lee University).
Davidson’s parents helped found Indianapolis’s Second Presbyterian Church and were married by the congregation’s newly named minister, Henry Ward Beecher. It was through these connections that Davidson and his siblings met Beecher’s sister, Harriet, and interacted with an elderly former slave of their great-grandfather Noble (whom the governor had brought to freedom in Indiana), a man known around Indianapolis as Uncle Tom.
Davidson’s father, a leader in the Constitutional Union Party, first enrolled his sons in Ovid Butler’s North Western Christian University (now Butler University), but with rising sectional tensions, he decided the boys also needed to spend some time in the Southern schools of higher education. While attending Washington College, Davidson witnessed the election of 1860 and Virginia’s secession and, despite his father’s protests, ultimately enlisted alongside his cousins in the cause of the Confederacy.
Davidson’s story is one that delves into the human experience on multiple levels. It asks readers to reconsider what they know of the Civil War and complicates while it complements the existing literature. It is a story that perhaps could only have happened in Indiana.About the Author
Jason Lantzer is assistant director, university honors program, at Butler University in Indianapolis. He received his undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees from Indiana University, Bloomington. Lantzer is the author of “Prohibition is Here to Stay”: The Reverend Edward S. Shumaker and the Dry Crusade in America (2009), Mainline Christianity: The Past and Future of America’s Majority Faith (2012) and Dis-History: Uses of the Past at Walt Disney’s Worlds (2017).
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Title: Rebel Bulldog: The Story of One Family, Two States, and the Civil War
Pages: 187, black-and-white illustrations
Size: 6 x 9
Cover: Hardcover
Publication Date: December 2017
Cost: $24.95 (hardcover)
ISBN: 978-0-87195-420-6 (hardcover)
To learn more, visit:
-@indianahistory (Indiana Historical Society Twitter/Facebook/Instagram)
-@histprofdad (author Jason Lantzer Twitter)
–www.indianahistory.org ( purchase the book here, as well as on Amazon, Barnes & Noble)