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Chris Publishes New Book, “Seizing Destiny”

SD-coverCongratulations to our historian-in-residence, Chris Mackowski, whose latest book project is now available. Seizing Destiny: The Army of the Potomac’s “Valley Forge” and the Civil War Winter that Saved the Union was a collaborative writing project with Stafford County historian Al Conner, Jr.

Seizing Destiny looks at the grim winter of 1862-63 that the Union army spent in Stafford County—and the remarkable transformation it underwent, from the brink of collapse to a fighting force finally able to achieve victory.

“Al put together an amazing body of research, and I was fortunate enough to be asked to come in and help him get it into shape for publication,” Chris explains. “I was able to round out the book with some research of my own, but really, it’s Al’s book. He has broken some really cool new ground with this.”

The book fills a gap in the Civil War literature, touching on a period of the war few people have written about. “Al saw this as not just a chapter of the army’s history to skip over but as a major transformative period for the army—something no one else has really addressed,” Chris says. “He positions this as one of the most important non-combat turning points of the war, and he has the research to back it up. It’s pretty groundbreaking.”

Seizing Destiny—which runs 370 pages with notes and bibliography and is available in hardcover—is published by Savas Beatie. It’s available from the publisher and on Amazon, and will soon be available in local bookstores.