Gene Paleno is not an historian. He did not fill his schooldays pouring over dry textbooks and memorizing date after date.
Paleno is a storyteller. He’s interested in the people behind the things we all learn about in history class. He wants to pen their tales, to talk about their motives and interests, what they loved and what they hated.
“After all, that’s what’s important,” he said. “Not the battles — the stories and the people.”
This was what drove him to write his latest history book, “The Porter Conspiracy.” The book tells the story of the Battle of Second Manassas — also known as the Second Battle of Bull Run to a Union soldier — during the Civil War, in which Union Major General Fitz John Porter played a vital role in preventing a huge loss to the Union Army’s numbers.
But the Union did not win the Battle of Second Manassas, and Fitz John Porter took the blame. He was court-marshaled for his actions, which included refusing to march into an attack he feared would decimate his soldiers. Once found guilty for disobedience and misconduct, he was dismissed from the Army.
Fitz John Porter spent the next two decades working to clear his name.
“Porter not only proved his entire innocence, but it was established in writing that he alone, by holding off [Confederate Major General James Longstreet] for 10 hours — losing half his men — stopped them from destroying the Union army so it could regroup and two weeks later under another general stop Lee from his march into the north,” Paleno explained. “So he’s a real hero, and no one has ever told that story.”
When Paleno came across this tale, he knew he had to write about it. He spent three years buried in research. He read letters from Confederate and Union soldiers, the court transcripts for Fitz John Porter’s conviction and exoneration, and compared tons of books on the Civil War to see which information was credible and accurate. He even conducted interviews with people in Lake County whose ancestors fought in the war.
Paleno went as far as to request documents from the Library of Congress. He read every statement by Porter, plus the court marshals, officers, witnesses involved in his dismissal. Then he read the biographies of the generals involved in the Battle of Second Manassas in order to understand what they were like as individuals.
“People have not delved deeply enough to get all the facts, and I was very careful about getting it stated correctly and placing blame and praise where it was deserved,” said Paleno.
The end result was a 400-page book that, while centered around Fitz John Porter and the Battle of Second Manassas, also regales stories about other soldiers in the Civil War, such as the father on one side of the war who unknowingly killed his own son on the other side. He was so devastated by what he had done, he walked into his next battle without the intention of walking out.
“It was son against father, father against son, brother against brother — terrible war,” Paleno said. “It matured us as a nation more than any other single thing.”
While Paleno may not be an historian, he clearly has a fascination with history — last year he wrote Lake County History and he’s already set to publish another book titled “The Americans.” And like any history buff, he’s interested in the subject because without an understanding of the past, we’re doomed to repeat it. To know where we are going, we have to know where we have been.
But Paleno didn’t actually get his start writing history books. Science fiction is where he began. He’s published a half dozen sci-fi novels, as well as contributes widely read weekly columns to the Record-Bee. Further, he has three science fiction books set to come out, an autobiography and The Americans.
And he’s not nearly done telling stories. At 92 years old, Paleno admits he’s been given more years than many. “I think if there’s a god of the mega universe … I’m grateful and I continue to pay full measure for my extra years by doing what I can to make people’s lives more complete,” he said. “When I’m gone that will be the only thing that I’m remembered for: what I do for other people.”
To order The Porter Conspiracy, visit genepaleno.com or email genepaleno@gmail.com.
