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Kenneth L. Lyftogt is an Iowa original.  He is a professor emeritus of History at the University of Northern Iowa.  He has written six books on Iowa and the Civil War, most notably, the first two volumes of a trilogy. Drawing upon vast research, he speaks to audiences across the state. I hope you’ll enjoy this interview. 

How did you become interested in the Civil War? 

I came of reading age in the centennial years of the Civil War, impressionable years that introduced me to some of the great writers on the war, a love that has continued throughout my life.  I’ve spent many days and nights traveling the routes of the Civil War armies and wandering across battlefields.  Three years as a Civil War reenactor gave me practical insights into the daily life of a soldier.

How did that interest become specific to Iowa?

I was a founding member of The Northeast Iowa Civil War Association, a reenacting group. They were a contingent of the Turkey Foot Long Rifles, a black-powder shooting club that already had buck-skinner members, and a Revolutionary War reenacting group.   The Long Rifles included a fine blacksmith, several expert horse hostlers who portrayed the 2nd Iowa Cavalry, as well as gunsmiths and drillmasters.

Charles Lemmons founded our Union infantry company, and they portrayed the Cedar Falls Reserves, B Co. 31st Iowa Infantry.

Charlie taught me about Iowa’s part in the war.  He based the reenactment unit on a Xerox copy of the Civil War diary of John Rath.  I edited the Rath Diary for an undergraduate history class, and it became my first Civil War book, Left For Dixie. 

I was also a history student at the time.  Dr. Alvin R. Sunseri and two professors, Bill Graves and David Walker, urged me to enroll in a master’s program at UNI.  They suggested that I use my research for a thesis; it was later published as From Blue Mills To Columbia: Cedar Falls and the Civil War.

That book got me a job in the history department. and I joined a small group of UNI historians who studied Waterloo and Cedar Falls.  Dr. Sunseri and I co-authored The Sullivan Family of Waterloo, about the five Sullivan Brothers who died at Guadalcanal in World War II. 

Research can be very boring, with no end in sight.  What motivated you to keep at it? 

Researching my books was never boring.  In fact it was terribly addicting, with one thing leading to another.  The Rath Diary led me to the full story of Cedar Falls and the Civil War, and then to Matthew Trumbull – Civil War general and resident of Clarksville. 

What was the most interesting or remarkable thing you discovered in your research?

I found Matthew Mark Trumbull.  Every Civil War scholar has their favorite character, and Trumbull is mine. 

The creation of my trilogy has given me hundreds of stories that could also apply here.  My challenge is to weave them together in an Iowa tapestry.  I compare my work to Homer’s The Iliad in its depth, scope, and remarkable characters and stories.

 In 1975, you wrote Road Freaks of Trans-Amerika.  Have your early experiences influenced the way you research, write about, and understand history?

My Road Freak hitch-hiking addiction served me well as a Civil War scholar.  One summer I thumbed my way to Yazoo, Miss., where Sherman’s Army was initially formed.  Using Left For Dixie as my guide, I thumbed my way through the South, following Sherman’s Army from Vicksburg to Chattanooga, to Atlanta, to Savannah, through the Carolinas, to Washington D.C.

I met many kind, generous people who eagerly shared family and local stories.  I felt humbled while a guest on the porch of a black family’s home when I mentioned the Civil War monument on their town square, a tribute to the county’s Confederate dead.  The family members told me how that monument, the pride of the town, was where the local Klan chapter had held their rallies. That monument, beloved by the pro-Confederate population, was, to the black citizens, a symbol of terror and of hate.

As a young man, did you ever envision yourself as a historian?

Not in the least. 

You were a Civil War reenactor for three years.  How has that experience influenced your writing? 

Reenacting gave me first-hand knowledge of how Civil War soldiers lived, drilled, used, and cared for their weapons.  There is no experience quite like seeing 10,000 well-drilled reeanactors in action.  I was a part of the camp and battle scenes in the movies North and South II, and Glory, which were very good portrayals of Civil War drill and maneuvers. 

Who are your favorite historians and writers on the Civil War?

Bruce Catton’s magnificent trilogy on the Army of the Potomac showed me that a historical narrative can be great literature.  Shelby Foote’s wondrous trilogy has been a kind of gold standard.  Douglas S. Freeman’s trilogy, Lee’s Lieutenants, is another great work.  Freeman, Clifford Dowdy and other romantics, are wonderful reads, though their works are pure Lost Cause propaganda and must be seen as such.  Our great poet, Carl Sandburg, gave me the Lincoln that I’ll always know.

Among contemporary authors, Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals is now the standard on Lincoln scholarship, and Drew Gilpen Faust’s This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War is a truly magnificent study of what that war did to the consciousness of the nation. 

What has your Civil War research taught you about the human condition?

The people of the Civil War era are little different from the people of today.  They share the bigotries, nobility, selfishness, and self-sacrifice of my family, friends, and neighbors.  

What is your next project, and how far advanced is it?

I am finishing up Iowa and the Civil War: Vol. III: The Longest Year, 1865.  It is to be published in the spring of 2022.

(The author’s books can be purchased through Camp Pope Publishing.  Autographed copies are available by contacting the author at ken.lyftogt@uni.edu )

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