Book Authors

About Her Book

Scratch with the Rebels, the true story of James McCaskey, a member of the Roundhead Regiment, the 100th Pennsylvania, and Gus Smythe, Washington Light Infantry, 24th South Carolina; and how they came to their opposing positions in the Battle of Secessionville.

About the Author

Carolyn Poling Schriber received her PhD in History from the University of Colorado, where she worked in two very different fields: medieval Europe and nineteenth-century America. She enjoyed a successful career as a tenured professor at Rhodes College, specializing in medieval history and publishing extensively on relationships between Anglo-Norman bishops and kings in the twelfth century. She also served as Editor-in-Chief of the Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies (ORB), an early and extremely successful approach to harnessing the resources of the internet to facilitate historical research.

Now she has retired to Professor Emerita status and turned her attention to her second love, the history of America’s Civil War. Dr. Schriber has produced an ambitious study of the Battle of Secessionville, the first re-examination of the impact of that battle in over a decade. She offers a fresh perspective and a valuable new approach to some of issues concerning the American Civil War. After extensive research, she has successfully blended the personal stories of two opposing soldiers with a detailed account of the battle. With a clear and engaging writing style, A Scratch with the Rebels illuminates the depth and diversity of perspectives from both sides of the conflict. It is an absorbing history for Civil War buffs and historians, as well as a general audience.