About Gene

Gene Ingram, a WW II vet, is a Civil War enthusiast and reenactor.

He is seen here at the reenactment of the Battle of Olustee. He was commissioned in 1989 as a Topographical Engineer by Colonel Ray Giron who commanded the 15th U.S. Infantry and the 1st Florida Volunteers. At reenactments across the country, he remembers participating with his units in Steven Spielberg’s, “Class of 61" which was shown on TV as a mini series. Having been a staff engineer for Caterpillar Tractor Company where he served for 35 years, he developed a fascination with the role engineers played in the Civil War. Continuing in this impression, he serves on the staff and draws maps for Union Commander James Permane.

He is a Speaker at the annual Olustee Exposition held at the battlefield in September of each year. This event is sponsored by the Olustee Battlefield Citizens Support Organization, the

Florida Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service. In addition, he periodically talks to school groups about the Civil War and what life was like in the field for the soldiers who fought in the war.

Gene Ingram concentrated his studies on the early years of the Civil War. He spent hours and days walking the battlefields at Antietam standing in front of the Dunker Church overlooking the infamous corn field and thought about having the characters in his book fight here.

He moved on to the battlefield at Fredericksburg where he focused on the stone wall at Marye’s Heights and the house some yards from the wall. He imagined his characters facing the enfilade of fire created by General Cobb's Georgians (the General was mortally wounded at the wall by a Yankee sniper shooting from an upstairs window in the town some 400 yards away) and joined by the 24th North Carolinians, their faces blackened with the smoke of battle. He saw his characters crawling with feeble limbs and dragging their wounded to shelter behind the house.

At Chancellorsville he took eerie walks through the pinewoods where General ‘Stonewall’ Jackson was mortally wounded by his own troops. Jackson’s Corps had outflanked the Union Army and overrun General Howard’s XI Corps. Standing where the Bullock Road met the Orange Turnpike Gene’s hero will witness General Jackson peering through the twilight toward the manor house where General Hooker had his headquarters. Jackson made the decision to continue the advance of his corps, but as he and his staff returned to his lines they were fired upon by their own North Carolinians who mistook them for Yankee Cavalry.

Inspired by the history of these events, Gene’s novel “Private Logan’s Revenge”, maintains the accuracy of the battles incorporating the exciting lives of fictional characters.