|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Printer
Friendly |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Whether
on a battlefield, at an historic site, or in a museum, history
has been a life-long passion for Michael C. Hardy. During his
childhood in Central Florida, he often spent time at the nation’s
oldest city, St. Augustine; along the sand dunes at New Smyrna
Beach, the site of a small Civil War skirmish in March 1862; or
among the rockets at Kennedy Space Center. In November 1982, Michael
traveled to Orange Springs, Florida, to participate in his first
Civil War re-enactment. For the next twenty years he took part
in events from Florida to Pennsylvania, and at hundreds of locations
in between. Some of the highlights include the 125th Gettysburg;
the 130th Murfreesboro; the 135th Antietam; the 135th Gettysburg,
which was the largest re-enactment ever held; the 135th Nashville;
the 135th Chickamauga; and the 140th Manassas. Michael has served
in nearly every position imaginable, from medical steward, to
color sergeant, to colonel of an infantry battalion. He has also
volunteered as an interpreter at local museums and state and national
parks, and has presented hundreds of programs for schools, libraries,
scout troops, and churches. Michael has spent a vast amount of
time researching the day-to-day lives of mid nineteenth-century
Americans in an effort to effectively communicate the past to
people today. Michael had always been a reader and, while young,
enjoyed mysteries, including the tales of Edgar Allen Poe, Sherlock
Holmes, and Alfred Hitchcock. Though his adult reading focused
squarely on history, he continued to enjoy these authors and to
see that interpreting history and solving mysteries really have
much in common. |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In
August 1995, Michael married Elizabeth Baird of Berea, Kentucky,
and they soon returned home to the mountains of Southern Appalachia.
Michael’s mother’s family first came to western North
Carolina in 1771; his father’s from Alabama, Tennessee,
and South Carolina. Once Michael moved to western North Carolina,
he began putting his love of books and his passion for history
together. In 1998, Michael’s first nationally published
article was released in North and South. This piece focused on
a British-born Confederate general, Collet Leventhorpe.
Since
that first article was published in 1998, he has contributed to
numerous other publications. His topics have ranged from the details
of common soldier life, to biographies, to battle analyses. In
2003, Michael’s first book was released, a history of the
37th North Carolina Troops, published by McFarland and Company.
Using first-person accounts from letters and diaries, as well
as official records, Michael wove together the account of one
of the hardest fighting regiments of the war. It took Michael
six years to put these accounts together. Other books have followed,
both books that deal with the American Civil War and with Appalachia.
In 2006, two of Michael’s books won awards. Both the Battle
of Hanover Court House: Turning Point of the Peninsula Campaign
and A Short History of Old Watauga County won the Willie Parker
Peace History Book Award from the North Carolina Society of historians.
Michael continues to divide his time between local history and
writing about the Civil War. He recently finished his eleventh book,
a pictorial history of Mitchell County, and he is currently working on a regimental
history of the 58th North Carolina Troops. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
At
the end of December 2004, Michael left the professional world
to devote himself to writing history full time. He had spent nearly
a decade working in libraries in western North Carolina. Michael's
primary motivation for writing is the preservation of history.
Rather than re-visit the frequently covered epic or sweeping events
of history, he seeks to find and relate the incidental or small
facts that otherwise get glossed over or completely forgotten.
There are many events and people that are of interest but which
are seldom even given a second thought by "academic"
historians. These are the events and people to which Michael is
drawn and about which he is most passionate in his writing.
Michael
also consults with other authors and organizations in their work.
He has helped several museums with displays about the Civil War,
and at times even loans articles from his own collection for display.
He has also worked with several well known fiction writers, including
New York Times best-seller Sharyn McCrumb, answering questions
about the Civil War or western North Carolina.
An
avid photographer, Michael at times illustrates the books and
articles that he has written with many of his own photographs.
Some of Michael’s favorite subjects to photograph are the
tombstones of Confederate soldiers and the beautiful mountains
of Southern Appalachia. He is also a book collector, with several
thousand volumes in his collection, and can often be found reading
two or three books at once. Michael volunteers with a number of
local historical societies and associations on a regular basis.
Michael lives with Elizabeth, an English professor at Mayland
Community College and also a published author, their wonderful
son Nathaniel (born in April 2001), and their beautiful daughter
Isabella (born in December 2006) high up in the mountains of western
North Carolina. |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
©2008 Michael C.
Hardy
©2008 Barry Houck
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All
Rights Reserved |
|
