Category: Miscellaneous
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A Salute to Our Veterans
Anyone who reads this blog knows I don’t often post personal items, but in this one case I’m going to make an exception. We managed to snap a shot of my younger son Brody saluting several weeks ago, and I knew then exactly how I’d be using that photo. Thank you to all of our […]
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Ed Bearss (and Bryce Suderow) do Petersburg, Volume 1
Be on the lookout very, very soon for The Petersburg Campaign, Volume 1: The Eastern Front Battles. Published by Savas Beatie and edited by Bryce Suderow, this first of two planned volumes collects previously unpublished manuscripts famed historian Ed Bearss wrote for the National Park Service decades ago. I previewed the book here back in […]
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John Hennessy: “The Gift That Keeps on Giving”
Editor’s Note: I also posted this short blog entry over at The Siege of Petersburg Online, which is where I’m spending most of my “Civil War time” these days. Harry Smeltzer at Bull Runnings often refers to historian John Hennessy of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park as “the gift that keeps on giving.” […]
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“You have let me sleep in peace for the first time.”
Recently the NY Times had a blog post by Richard Slotkin titled Washington in Disarray the focus of which was on the crisis in Washington at the beginning of September 1862 and President Lincoln’s decision to keep Gen. George McClellan in charge of the army. There is an element to the story that I feel […]
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Blunder Wonders
Blunder Wonders By Jack McGuire I often wonder about the men, Union and Confederate who fought so valiantly for their beliefs under some of the harshest conditions imaginable. At times plowing headlong across open fields into each other knowing full well a simple leg wound could mean the loss of life or limb. How the […]
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Crowdsourcing a Phrase
I’ve been transcribing a number of letters from Maj. Eugene Blackford CSA (which is why I haven’t posted much). He has excellent penmanship but occasionally I run into parts of his letters I have trouble with. One of those cases is presented below, which may involve a foreign phrase. Blackford often salts his letters with […]
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The Greencastle Raid – July 2nd 1863
Dead by 22 years of age Ulric Dahlgren certainly filled his short life with episodes worthy of some note. His name is inexorably linked to the 1864 raid on Richmond that claimed his life. The ensuing furor over papers supposedly found on his body remains one of the most controversial issues of the Civil War. […]