"Firestorm At Peshtigo"

While on vacation to Panama City Beach, Florida, earlier this year, I finished the book "Firestorm At Peshtigo" by Denise Gess and William Lutz.  It is about the huge fire at Peshtigo, Wisconsin, on October 8, 1871, and resulted in the deaths of at least 1,500 and possibly as many as 2,500 people.

Most people don't know anything about it because it took place the same day and night as the Great Chicago Fire which covered a much smaller area and resulted in far fewer deaths.

Taking place in 1871, just six years after the Civil War, there were a lot of veterans of the war as well as civilians who lived through it.

Some of those people was Luther Noyes, Isaac Stephenson and Wisconsin Governor Lucius Fairchild.  Also, the U.S. Signal Service, forerunner of the Weather Bureau.

I'll write about these connections.

--Old Secesh