(Not Pretty, but Precious is presented here in a high qual...)
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The Deforests of Avesnes and of New Netherland: A Huguenot Thread in American Colonial History, 1494 to the Present Time
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This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
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Miss Ravenel's Conversion: From Secession to Loyalty
(No other nineteenth-century novel about the Civil War has...)
No other nineteenth-century novel about the Civil War has attained so great a scope as Miss Ravenel's Conversion. De Forest understood the Southern as well as the Northern points of view and never made his characters good or bad according to which side they were on. He paid sincere tribute to the skill, courage, and honor of the Confederate soldiers, though like Captain Colburne, he risked being called a Copperhead for it. To him the war was more than a crusade to abolish slavery; it was a conflict of cultures springing from basic economic causes; neither side was blameless. The venal politics that awarded commissions to the friends of the party in power are exposed with quiet scorn; red tape, graft, and dishonesty all find their place in the pattern of the book. In 1887, defending American fiction against the charge of narrow scope, Howells cited Miss Ravenel's Conversion as presenting an image of American life during the late rebellion, both North and South, at home and in the field, which does not "shrink to pitiful dimensions" even when "put by the side of Tolstoi's War and Peace"; it is an admirable novel and spacious enough for the vast drama glimpsed in it."
(John William De Forest was an American soldier and writer...)
John William De Forest was an American soldier and writer of realistic fiction, best known for his Civil War novel Miss Ravenel's Conversion from Secession to Loyalty.
(Excerpt from Kate Beaumont
Without answering or apparent...)
Excerpt from Kate Beaumont
Without answering or apparently noticing this question, Duffy pursued: Yes, by jiminy, that 's him. Sold him peanuts and candy many a time. I '11 go and shake hands with him.
He started to go forward. Wilkins caught him by the skirt of his black swallow-tailed coat and hauled him back.
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A Volunteer's Adventures: A Union Captain's Record of the Civil War
(John William De Forest (1826-1906), a native of Connectic...)
John William De Forest (1826-1906), a native of Connecticut, enjoyed a long career as a prolific writer, mainly of fiction. During the Civil War he was a captain in the 12th Connecticut Volunteers, taking part in the capture of New Orleans, the Port Hudson campaign, and the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia. After the war, he served as a subassistant district commissioner for the Freedmen's Bureau in Greenville, South Carolina.
A Volunteer's Adventures, first published in 1946, is De Forest's vivid description of his experiences at war. It consists of letters to his wife during his service, supplemented by six articles published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine and Galaxy between 1864 and 1868. De Forest intended to compile these pieces into a book but never did. James H. Croushore finally accomplished the task, adding chapter divisions with introductory notes to give form and continuity to the whole. The result is a first-rate personal war narrative - recently named one of the one hundred finest Civil War books by Civil War magazine - more than half of which deals with Louisiana from De Forest's Yankee perspective.
Miss Ravenel's conversion from secession to loyalty
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
John William De Forest was an American author. Critics agree that his novels with their vigorous realism and skilful character portrayal deserve more appreciation than they had received.
Background
John William De Forest was born on May 31, 1826 in Humphreysville, now Seymour, Connecticut, United States. He was the son of John Hancock De Forest, a successful merchant and cotton manufacturer, and Dotha Woodward, daughter of Elijah Woodward of Watertown, Connecticut, United States. The De Forests came from Avesnes in French Hainaut, the first to settle in this country being Isaac, son of Jesse, who sailed for New Nethei land in the fall of 1636, on a ship owned jointly by the De Forest and Van Rensselaer families. Here he became a great burgher, a schepen, and a member of the Nine Men. His son, David, settled in Stratford, Connecticut, United States.
Education
The parents of John expected to send him to Yale, but the death of his father when the boy was thirteen years old, and a serious illness, deprived him of a college education, although in 1859 Amherst College awarded him an honorary Master of Arts.
Career
De Forest had a decided taste for study and writing, however, and as early as 1851, after a careful investigation of available sources, he published under the patronage of the Connecticut Historical Society a History of the Indians of Connecticut.
He spent several years abroad, chiefly in Syria, where at Beirut his brother, Reverend Dr. Henry A. De Forest, conducted a girls’ school, and in Florence and Paris.
The literary fruits of his life abroad were Oriental Acquaintance (1856), and European Acquaintance (1858), pleasantly written books descriptive of persons and scenes encountered in his travels. In Witching Times (1856), and Seacliff (1859) he also made a successful beginning as a novelist.
He was again in Europe when the Civil War broke out, but hastening back he recruited a company in New Haven which was mustered into the service as Company I, 12th Connecticut Volunteers, of which he became captain. He served under Generals Weitzel and Banks in the Southwestern states, and under Gen. Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. He also acted as inspector general of the 16t Division of the XIX Corps, and as aide on the staff of that corps. He was brevetted major, March 13, 1865. After the war he was commissioned as captain in the Veteran Reserve Corps, detailed as captain of Company I, 14th Regiment, and assigned to duty as acting assistant adjutant-general.
For a period he was in command of a district of the Freedman’s Bureau, with headquarters at Greenville, South Carolina. He was mustered out of the service January 1, 1868.
The rest of his life was spent for the most part in New Haven. His military service had not altogether interrupted his literary work, for he had written for Harper’s Monthly some vivid descriptions of battle scenes, and in 1867 he published a novel dealing with the war and its results, Miss Ravenel’s Conversion from Secession to Loyalty. Another novel, Kate Beaumont, a notable portrayal of certain aspects of Southern life, appeared in 1872. Other short stories and novels followed, among the latter: The Wetherel Affair (1873), Honest John Vane (1873), Justine’s Lovers (1875), Playing the Mischief (1876), Irene the Missionary (1879), The Bloody Chasm or Oddest of Courtships (1881), A Lovers Revolt (1898).
In his later years De Forest published two volumes of verse, The Downing Legends (1901) and Poems: Medley and Palestina (1902). He was also the author of The De Forests of Avesnes (and of New Netherland) a Huguenot Thread in American Colonial History (1900).
Achievements
John William De Forest was the author of a major novel of the American Civil War—Miss Ravenel’s Conversion from Secession to Loyalty (1867).
De Forest married in New Haven, Connecticut, June 5, 1856, Harriet Silliman Shepard, daughter of Charles Upham Shepard, considered in her day an exceptional classical scholar, and the center of a brilliant group of university people.
