We saw the orthopedic surgeon this afternoon. Just like the last visit, there was good news, bad news, and unwelcome news.

The good news: the swelling has gone down, and he wants Susan to start to exercise the leg some in order to make sure that she maintains some muscle tone in the leg. He wants her to be out of the immobilizer as much as she feels comfortable doing.

The bad news: there’s no doubt at all about the need for surgery. She will definitely have to have it repaired surgically. The problem is that it’s a re-do of ACL reconstruction on that knee, so the success rate is less than for a first time.

The unwelcome news: It’s …

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The big broom came out last night.  My own opinion is that after six years of having absolutely no checks and balances that led to Skippy Bush getting a blank check, the American electorate decided that it was time to restore checks and balances. I can’t see how that’s a bad thing.

I find it interesting that my law school classmate Missy Hart, who had a Pennsylvania congressional district gerrymandered just for her, got broomed by 10,000 votes last night after a couple of terms rubber-stamping Skippy. I think that says a lot.

Here in Ohio, after sixteen years of incredibly corrupt one-party rule, the voters spoke. All statewide offices were decided yesterday: governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, and …

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Old friend Harry Smeltzer, who dipped his toe into the blogging pool earlier this year when he filled in while Dimitri Rotov took a vacation, has taken the plunge. Harry has a brand-new blog called Bull Runnings, which is an adjunct to his digital history project on the First Battle of Bull Run. I’ve added a link to Harry’s blog.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Harry. Have fun.

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At long last, tomorrow is election day. When the negative attack ads started in June, it seemed like this day would never come. As I said last week, it couldn’t come soon enough.

Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, please do your civic duty and vote tomorrow. The way I see it, those who don’t do their duty and vote have no right to bitch.

As for me, I intend to keep on bitching, so I will be there bright and early tomorrow morning exercising my constitutional rights (one of the very few constitutional rights we still have left, thanks to George W. Bush).

And, best of all, by this time tomorrow night, there will be no more attack …

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The blogging software that I use tells me every time that a comment is posted to this blog. It’s really quite a nice feature, because it permits me to screen out unacceptable comments before they ever hit the website. It’s also quite nice, because it means that I can see just who’s visiting and leaving me comments.

This evening, I was very pleasantly surprised to see that a very old friend posted a couple of comments to the blog. We’ve know each other for 25 years now, and in many ways, we grew up together. We haven’t actually seen each other in more than 20 years, but we’ve stayed in touch over the decades, and it was really nice to …

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Here’s another in my series of infrequent tributes to forgotten cavalrymen. Most of them have been to men who should be remembered but aren’t, for whatever reason. This time, for a change, we’re going to focus on someone who has been forgotten for very good reason. He did next to nothing worth remembering, other than that his story is interesting. Hence, I decided to profile him.

Napoleon Bonaparte Knight was born in Dover, Delaware on December 7, 1840. He was born into one of the leading families of Delaware. He grew up in Dover, but was educated at Union College in Schenectady, New York, graduating in 1860 languages, medicine, and law. He was a member of the Theta Chapter of …

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Today is November 2. The mid-term elections are in five days. Tuesday cannot possibly come soon enough.

I live in Ohio, which is THE battleground state these days. We’ve lost about a quarter of a million manufacturing jobs in the past six or seven years. The state’s unemployment rate is 5.7%, a full percentage point higher than the rest of the country. The economy in this state is a wreck. Our convicted criminal governor is leaving office after two terms filled with corruption and scandal. Mike DeWine, Republican Senator, is closely linked to Skippy Bush and his failed, corrupt administration. Deborah Pryce, the fourth ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, is in the race of her life. The next …

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A reader named Don Hallstrom posted a comment that was buried deep in a thread that I posted a year ago. If WordPress didn’t notify me whenever a comment is posted to this blog, I probably never would have noticed it.

Here’s what Don wrote:

I recently purchased a couple of your books and look forward to reading them. This portion of your blog relating to confederate cavalary has raised my interest in other lesser know leaders. I agree with your opinions about Thomas Munford and enjoyed reading them. I wanted to see if you were going to post some others. What do you think about the following:
Laurence Baker
Lunsford Lomax
James B. Gordon
John Chambliss
Pierce M.B. Young …

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When Fort Sumter fell in April 1861, tens of thousands of young men flocked to join the armies of the South and the North. Many had no military experience whatsoever. Some had served in various militia regiments and had at least some rudimentary military training and skills. One such militia unit was called the Philadelphia Light Horse, which was composed of affluent young men from a suburb of Philadelphia called Germantown.

About twenty of the city’s social elite formed a militia company. James H. Stevenson, a former U. S. dragoon, joined them. This is Stevenson’s description, written in 1879, and included in his history of the First New York (Lincoln) Cavalry, “Boots and Saddles”: A History of the First Volunteer …

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JD and I have two articles appearing in major Civil War magazines in the next couple of months. Both articles were written as adjuncts to our Stuart’s Ride book, and both were specifically intended to provide us with another means of promoting the book.

The first one to appear will be an even more detailed treatment of the charge of the 1st Delaware Cavalry, also known as Corbit’s Charge, at Westminster, MD than what appears in the book. That will appear in the next issue of Gettysburg Magazine. JD and I signed off on the maps that will appear with the article today, and they’re quite good. After the book was completely finished, I found a couple of additional …

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