Color my thinking, Blue and grey

Editor’s Note: Please welcome Mark Lally, one of a number of new amateur Civil War bloggers here at TOCWOC.  Mark and the rest of the group are here to bring some fresh new perspectives to TOCWOC, a blog I founded back in late 2006.  My goal is to bring you the reader fresh content from a variety of perspectives five days a week.  I look forward to what Mark and the others will bring to the table.

I have always been a huge military history fan. From the time a was a boy studying everything I could find on the second world war until the birth of my son 9 years ago, my passion for the civil war slowly blossomed. Ten years ago I looked at my newborn son and asked myself for the first time what it meant to be a man. I knew of the horrors and deprivations suffered during the civil war. I was especially struck by the rows of neatly stacked men that were marched into a hail of soft lead balls up that hill toward Marye’s heights in Fredericksburg. It was beyond my 20^th century mind to accept that this was how rational thinking men behaved. I delved into the study of the civil war. Some might say I’m a bit obsessive compulsive about it. It has given me a wonderful look at a time now past when men held traits of character like chivalry, loyalty and courage above ones own comfort or even ones own life. My favorite battle areas of study are Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Vicksburg. I especially find the stories of individual soldiers during these battles extremely thought provoking and poignant. I am the father of three grown women and one overactive nine-year-old boy who is the light of my life. I am an avid reader with seldom less than three books going at once. Born and raised in the Boston area I am a lifelong red sox fan and now reside near the beach in sunny southern California. I am currently researching my Irish ancestors and have found that while my grandparents did not arrive in the United States until 1896, my clan surname, Lally, served on both sides and is listed 130 times. I am looking forward to learning along with all of you of the sacrifices, the bravery and the valor of the men who wore the blue and the grey.