Whirlwind and Storm

"Whirlwind & Storm introduces us to the colorful and impetuous Lieutenant Colonel Charles Farnsworth, a Connecticut cavalryman in the Union Army. Farnsworth was fiery, ambitious, and bold, sometimes a little too bold for his own good---in combat, in business ventures, and in the river crossing that ended his life tragically early. Drawing from a rich and previously ignored trove of letters and diaries, Farnsworth's great-grandson and namesake, a military veteran himself, has done a marvelous job of bringing alive this officer in all his flawed glory."




Adam Hochschild, author of To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 and other books.




"With excellent research and clear writing, Whirlwind & Storm paints an impartial, intriguing, and entertaining account of the author's privileged ancestor, who served heroically with the First Connecticut Cavalry battalion in the Civil War. Before, during, and after the war "Charlie" Farnsworth exuded those common human traits that so defined him: driven, disciplined, courageous, opportunistic, and passionate. Whirlwind & Storm adds an illuminating, original, and personal work to the collage of our great American heritage."




Robert B. Angelovich, author of the forthcoming Riding for Uncle Samuel: The History of the First Connecticut Cavalry in the Civil War.




"If you want to know what the Civil War was really like, this is the book for you: an intimate, personal portrait of the war experience and the people who lived it, giving the reader a firsthand view of its realities. It is meticulously researched, authoritatively documented, and gracefully written."




William Bennett Turner, author of Figures of Speech: First Amendment Heroes and Villains.




"Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Farnsworth of Norwich emerges here as a free-spirited and ambitious young cavalry officer, with unique and often irreverent views on the Civil War and its leaders. His wide experience in the war, including imprisonment in Richmond, is well-researched and very readably presented. I found it especially fun to follow Charlie's love life through this most enjoyable book."




Vic Butsch, New London County (Connecticut) Civil War Round Table, Norwich Historical Society.




An intimate look at a young Norwich, Connecticut cavalry officer---in war, love, and his attempts to strike it rich---and his fierce ambition to make his mark in the Civil War and early Reconstruction. Lieutenant Colonel Charles Farnsworth's letters and diaries form the cornerstone for this short biography about an adventurer who helped organize the First Connecticut Cavalry. The book covers "Charlie's" near-fatal shooting while searching for Confederate bushwhackers in Virginia, his protests against incompetent Union leadership, his capture and confinement in Richmond's notorious Libby Prison, his romantic entanglements, his political connections with President Lincoln that sent him south in early 1865, and his tragic struggle to make his mark in Georgia during the early years of Reconstruction.