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Tale of tails to travel across country
Whether you're a Civil War buff or not, you may think you know many of the stories of the battles between the states, but there's a good chance you have never heard these tales . . . or, better yet, tails.
This month, the Nevada Daily Mail will begin publishing a nine-chapter serial story about dog mascots of the Civil War.
"Patriotic Pals: Tails of the Civil War," written by Washington Missourian newspaper columnist and book editor Chris Stuckenschneider, is an interesting series chock full of details about battles, regiments and leaders. While it's targeted at young readers and includes ideas and activities for how students can extend their learning, the stories will appeal to readers of all ages.
But equally as interesting as each chapter in "Patriotic Pals" is how the serial story came to be in the first place and where it's going from here.
This story will be featured in newspapers across Missouri as part of the Reading Across Missouri project offered through the Missouri Press Association and Foundation. It also will be featured in newspapers across the country as a Reading Across the Nation project offered through the National Newspaper Association.
Ultimately, Stuck-enschneider plans to turn the story into a children's book, just as she did with "Twist of Fate, The Miracle Colt and His Friends," a serial story she wrote in 2007 that also was featured in many newspapers across the country.
This is the eighth year for the Reading Across Missouri project, organized by the Missouri Press Association & Foundation and the fourth nationwide effort Missouri Press has helped NNA offer.
"Our goal in these projects is to have children reading and learning about history inside their community newspapers," said Dawn Kitchell, Education Director for Missouri Press and Newspaper In Education Task Force Chair for NNA.
Kitchell has long been on the lookout for a serial story involving pups, ever since "Hank the Cowdog" series won students' and teachers' hearts years ago.
Last spring she approached Stuckenschneider, whom she worked with on the "Twist of Fate" story, about writing a series about dogs involved with the each of the wars fought by American soldiers.
"It was an idea I had after reading news stories about dogs who were involved in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Kitchell, mentioning the military dog that served with SEAL Team 6 on its mission to capture Osama bin Laden.
"Then I thought, 'I'll bet there were dogs and pets involved with every war, so I proposed to Chris that she research the idea and write a serial story for the newspaper. She is a great writer and had great success with "Twist of Fate."
They narrowed the scope to be just the Civil War, which is marking its 150th anniversary over the next several years, from 2011 to 2015.
Stuckenschneider began her research with a simple American history textbook borrowed from a teacher friend. To gather more information, she purchased Ken Burns' documentary series on the Civil War, plumbed the Internet for more stories and visited history museums.
"I had some early success learning about a painting of a canine mascot in the Missouri History Museum, and from there the pieces just started to fall into place," said Stuckenschneider. "I kept researching and making calls to museums and to Civil War experts and gradually uncovered stories about mascots from major battles in a variety of states -- that was important as well. We wanted the story to begin in Missouri but to branch out and include a number of states."
When it came to writing the chapters, Stuckenschneider called in advice from "a master of historical fiction" -- Deborah Hopkinson, a well-known children's author she knew.
"A key goal for me was to educate, but also entertain," said Stuckenschneider, explaining she was concerned because she couldn't verify the accuracy of some of the details regarding the dogs, but the details were what made the stories so interesting.
"Deborah said that is the stuff of historical fiction, that what I was writing wasn't nonfiction," recalled Stuckenschneider. "The stories were folktales, legends, and I should state that somewhere in the serial -- which we did in the last chapter. I also sprinkled in statements like 'as legend has it,' when referring to parts of the stories that seemed particularly hard to believe, like the claim that Brutus caught slugs called minie balls in his mouth. One Civil War expert laughed at that statement and said it would be the last minie ball he ever caught."
She enlisted Chuck, a Border collie from Missouri, to be the narrator.
"It was easy to visualize Chuck because the first dog my husband and I owned was a wonderful Border collie named Chuck," said Stuckenschneider. "At first I thought that Chuck could be in school and be assigned to write a research paper on Civil War mascots, but then I came up with the idea of him being owned by a Civil War re-enactor.
Having the narrator dog be from Missouri was key for another reason, said Kitchell. The Reading Across Missouri story always focuses on Missouri history, but this year she wanted to tackle a broader topic in the Civil War, so the story was begun in Missouri.
A wrinkle developed in the process when Stuckenschneider sent the rough draft of eight chapters to Kitchell who noticed that all of the dogs were Union; the Confederacy wasn't represented.
"That was a dark day, but funny one, too," said Stuckenschneider. "I realized in rereading the chapters in their entirety that my research had turned up only Union dogs, but I was so happy to get the draft finished I tried to talk myself out of that being a problem. When I spoke with Dawn, neither one of us could let it go," Stuckenschneider added. "It was back to the books -- hoping against hope that I could find a rebel pup. When the bitty pooch Stonewall Jackson turned up I could have kissed the ground he walked on."
Another issue that proved trying was making sure the history of the battles was as accurate as possible. To accomplish this task, several Civil War "experts" read each of the chapters to verify the facts.
"We realized a story like this would have to be vetted through a lot of people," Kitchell remarked.
As with any story meant for children, illustrations and images are important, so while Stuckenschneider was writing "Patriotic Pups" she was trying to come up with old photos of the actual mascots or get permission from various museums and individuals to use their illustrations.
"We contemplated using a caricature of Chuck, but thought it would be more meaningful if we used actual photographs of the mascots and of Chuck," said Stuckenschneider. "I was able to locate several portraits of the dogs in museums, and found a gentleman in Ohio who collects Civil War memorabilia -- he had originals of several dog photos from the war.
"For some of the other photographs, we used dogs we knew that looked like the dogs described in the stories that were passed down by men in the regiments."
Stuckenschneider laughs, though, when she recalls how she found the image of Chuck the narrator. She was on vacation in England, staying in the Lake District, when she visited a pub called The Drunken Duck.
"Inside the door, lying right on the floor by the bar was the most gorgeous Border collie," she said. "I worked up my courage and asked his owner if I could take a photo. The man was so kind -- Chris Lewis is his name. He offered to take 'Bob' his dog outside and have him pose on a picnic table, sheep and rolling hills in the background.
"I've been in touch with Chris and he's really pleased 'Bob' will be making his debut in the newspaper."
Several of the other dog images used in the story are pets who actually belong to people Stuckenschneider knows.
"That's a fun addition that makes 'Pals' even more special to me," she said.
The "Patriotic Pals" series includes an activity in each chapter that incorporates the newspaper as a resource. A companion teacher guide is available online. Questions in the guide are aligned to Missouri's Grade Level Expectations and are appropriate for most elementary students.
The guide is available at www.mo-nie.com using download code: teachmo12.
Story to be a book
This is the third story Stuckenschneider has written for newspapers in partnership with the Missouri Press Association and Foundation. Her 2008 story, "Pressing West," chronicled the first newspaper in Missouri, the Missouri Gazette. Her story, "Twist of Fate, The Miracle Colt and His Friends," published as a children's book in 2009, has been nominated for the Missouri Association of School Librarian's Show Me Reader Awards. Children across Missouri in grades 1-3 are reading the book, and the nine other nominees, and will begin voting March 1 to select their favorite. "Patriotic Pals" will be released as a children's book in 2013.
To learn more, visit www.cstuckenschneider.com.