How to Become a Public Speaker

ow to Become a Public Speaker by William Pittenger was first published in 1903. It is acclaimed to be the best book on public speaking. There is a widespread opinion that all study of the mode of oratory is unmanly, and leads to the substitution of artifice and adornment for simplicity and power. It is possible to foster a spurious kind of oratory, which shall be far inferior to the rudest genuine speech. The most important question which arises is Can the Art of Speech be learned ? This book addresses this issue. According to William Pittenger, the fundamentals of public speaking are : The Initial fear, Thought and Emotion, Language, Imagination, Voice and Gesture, Confidence, Subject and Object and Thought-Gathering.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted as a private in Company H of the 2nd Ohio Infantry Regiment on April 17, 1861, for three months of service, during which time he participated in the First Battle of Bull Run. He soon re-enlisted in the Army for a three-year term, being mustered in on September 11, 1861, at Camp Dennison, Ohio, and days later joining the reconstituted 2nd Ohio Infantry as a corporal in Company G. Promoted to sergeant on March 13, 1862, Pittenger saw action in Andrews' Raid, also referred to as the Great Locomotive Chase. Captured on April 15, 1862, near Lafayette, Georgia, he escaped execution as a spy and was imprisoned until March 18, 1863, when he was paroled via City Point, Virginia.
This is the story of the failed attempt, the escape, capture and execution of eight soldiers as spy's and Pittenger's eventual release by prisoner exchange.