I’ve told you previously that music plays an important part in my life and always has.  This is a music post, so those of you looking for Civil War stuff won’t find it here.

I’ve also lamented the apparent lack of musical talent in many of today’s popular acts.  Finally, there’s been the “bimboizing” of pop music with the proliferation of air headed morons like Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson, both of whom appear to have the overwhelming majority of their talent in their bras.  Most recently, the ultimate air headed bimbo, Paris Hilton, has released an album, as somebody persuaded her that (a) she can sing and (b) anyone gives a damn. 

To borrow a line once used to …

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Not in Memorium but in Defense was launched early this summer to chronicle the research of a Harvard student working toward her senior thesis. The research has apparently been completed and the thesis is apparently underway, as there hasn’t been a post since July 19. In other words, the last post was ten weeks ago, so presumably that means that the blog has been abandoned. Consequently, I am deleting the link. If I hear that it’s come back on line at some point, I will add it back in again, but for now, there’s no reason to keep it as an actitve link.

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Since posting about the unscientific poll on favorite Civil War battlefields on the CWDG web site last night, we’ve had 15 more votes, presumably from some of you.

Here are the updated results, as of 7:51 PM on Monday, October 2:

Antietam 9.64% (8)
Chancellorsville 1.20% (1)
Chickamauga 9.64% (8)
Fredericksburg 3.61% (3)
Gettysburg 55.42% (46)
Petersburg 1.20% (1)
Richmond 0.00% (0)
Shiloh 3.61% (3)
Vicksburg 3.61% (3)
Other–tell us what! 12.05% (10)

Interestingly, the percentage of folks voting for Gettysburg has dropped slightly, but it still remains the overwhelming favorite. I doubt that will change.

I will continue to update the results here until we close the poll in a few weeks.

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Reader Jack Dempsey posted this comment to my discussion of my trip to Detroit last week:

For someone who tries to read your blog regularly, and would have enjoyed attending this event, I regret there was no prior notice on this blogsite as in other cases, at least to the best of my knowledge. Perhaps this could serve as a suggestion that authors attempt consistently to inform their readership of upcoming appearances. Thanks.

Point taken. It just never occurred to me to announce the date here, and I apologize for not doing so. Jack, I apologize. It would have been nice to meet you.

Consequently, I think that I will see about adding a section to this site which contains …

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We regularly run polls on the Civil War Discussion Group. We probably don’t change them often enough, but we come up with some interesting and sometimes unexpected results. Other results are precisely what I expect. What makes these unscientific polls interesting is seeing the results that come in and the comparing them wtih my expectations. Some are easier to predict than others.

The current poll, which has now been up for about a month, is completely unscientific. The question is a simple one: what’s your favorite Civil War battlefield. There are a number of specific choices, and there is also one that says “other”. Anyone wanting to respond to the poll simply has to click the button and the …

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Most of my regular readers know that I was born and raised in the Philadelphia area. I grew up a fanatical fan of Philadelphia’s professional sports teams. I stopped caring about the NBA when Julius Erving retired, and still don’t care. However, I remain a die-hard, life-long fan of the Phillies, Eagles, and Flyers. Every time my team has a game, I always skip my casino games at DaisySlots and start betting on my team to win or lose. I don’t really care.

For the City of Philadelphia, 1980 was nearly the greatest in the history of professional sports. We came within a hair of having all four professional championships in Philadelphia that year. The Phillies won the the World …

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Civil Warriors is a joint blog run by some of the best of the younger generation of Civil War historians, including Mark Grimsley, Brooks Simpson, and Steven Woodworth.

Ethan Rafuse has also joined the Civil Warriors team. For those not familiar with Ethan, he’s written several excellent books on the war, including an outstanding book on George B. McClellan’s role in the Civil War. Ethan is an Army historian whose work I really admire. He will make an excellent addition to the team, and I look forward to his contributions to the team blog.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Ethan.

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I keep talking about the Dahlgren manuscript, so tonight I thought I would give an update on the status of the Rush’s Lancers manuscript. The book is slated for release in November, meaning that there isn’t much time left to get the thing done.

My copy editor has forwarded me the marked up version of the manuscript over the past several days, and I have spent the last two nights reviewing her edits and then answering her queries. Fortunately, she is quite knowledgeable–she knows northern Virginia and lives in Philadelphia, meaning that most of the sits are familiar to her, as are many of the individuals mentioned in the book. She’s done an excellent job of it, and I completed …

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Perhaps I spoke a eulogy for the Hunterstown battlefield too soon.

From today’s edition of the Hanover Evening Sun newspaper:

Hunterstown, Fairfield part of Gettysburg Battle
By MEG BERNHARDT
Evening Sun Reporter

The National Park Service sign near the site of the Battle of Hunterstown details the cavalry engagement there. The Park Service has designated the battle at Hunterstown and another at Fairfield as part of the Battle of Gettysburg.

The National Park Service announced Tuesday it intends to include Hunterstown and Fairfield in an updated field study of the Gettysburg Battlefield.

Both towns were the site of cavalry battles during the Battle of Gettysburg – Hunterstown on July 2nd and Fairfield on July 3rd.

But their inclusion in the …

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The Detroit metropolitan area is huge. So huge, in fact, that there are five different Civil War Roundtables, if you count the one in Ann Arbor. Months ago, I was invited to speak to the Israel B. Richardson CWRT, which is on the northeast side of town. The CWRT meets in a Barnes & Noble store, and it’s the largest B&N store I’ve ever seen. I’m told that it used to be bowling alley.

I agreed to accept the invitation largely because Susan’s got family in the Detroit suburbs. Her aunt and uncle live in Franklin township, and she has cousins in Bloomfield Hills. We figured we could tie a visit with them to the talk. Unfortunately, they weren’t available, …

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