Chaplain Louis N. Beaudrye was the regimental historian of his unit, the 5th New York Cavalry. The regimental history is one of the better ones, but like many, it has its flaws. As a chaplain, Beaudrye didn’t spend much time on the battlefield, and he was also captured during the retreat from Gettysburg, meaning that he spent a stint at Libby Prison and hence wasn’t present for some of the events chronicled in his history of the regiment. That means that it has gaps in the thoroughness of its coverage. Nevertheless, it’s an important source on the Army of the Potomac’s Third Cavalry Division.

There’s also one other small point. The name on the regimental history is “Boudrye”. However, it …

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One year ago today, I launched this blog. The first post was dated September 23, 2005, and it was simply a welcome post. Little did I realize that 303 posts and countless comments later, this thing would still be around. There’s a comment on the weekly blog roundup on Civil War Interactive this week that indicates that the CWI folks believe my blog draws more comments than all of the other Civil War blogs combined. I don’t know if that’s true, but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if it was.

If it is true, it’s quite a tribute to you, my readers. Without you, this would just be my place to rant. There’s certainly a value to a good rant–there …

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Sundown today marked the arrival of the Jewish High Holy Days, and specifically, the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashana. L’Shana Tova–happy new year–to all.

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Early this year, I was contacted by Norwich University. A Norwich alum named Edward B. Williston was awarded a Medal of Honor for his valor on the second day of the Battle of Trevilian Station, June 12, 1864. This was not one of those bullshit Medals given for capturing a flag or for political reasons. This was the real deal–Williston fought his guns right on the skirmish line. When he wrote his report of the battle, Wesley Merritt, in describing Williston’s performance, wrote, “The light 12’s were magnificent.” Norwich informed me that it had commissioned Dale Gallon to paint a scene of Williston’s performance at Trevilian Station. I gave Dale everything I had: the Medal of Honor file, a …

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Yesterday, Dimitri Rotov had a really interesting post analyzing what he views as flaws in military history.

According to Dimitri, the biggest issues are too much reliance on too few sources and carelessness about the origin of a decision, leaving the analysis incomplete and lack in thoroughness. The combination of these two factors leaves Dimitri cold about traditional military history. It really is an interesting analysis.

He gave Mark Grimsley and me a tip of the cap, indicating that he believes that we go farther toward completeness and fairness in our analysis than most, a compliment I appreciate a great deal.

I thought I would touch base on these two issues. I have always prided myself on being extremely thorough …

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Today, I received an invitation to join the Military Writers Society of America. Here’s how the Society web site describes its mission:

We are an association of more than five-hundred authors, poets, and artists, drawn together by the common bond of military service. Most of our members are active duty military, retirees, or military veterans. A few are lifelong civilians who have chosen to honor our military through their writings or their art. Our only core principle is a love of the men and women who defend this nation, and a deeply personal understanding of their sacrifice and dedication.

Our skills are varied. Some of us are world class writers, with many successful books. Others write only for the …

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I got the new issue of North & South magazine today. It contains an article on the mystery of what Lincoln knew and when he knew it with respect to Ulric Dahlgren’s role in the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid. The article was written by Prof. David E. Long of East Carolina University.

I have been aware of this article for quite some time. David spoke to our Civil War Roundtable last year, and we spent some time together discussing the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid. Between his CWRT talk and our private discussions, David laid out his theory in detail, although I’d never seen it spelled out in writing. David contacted me about eight weeks and asked if I would be willing to read and …

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Tonight, I finished the third pass at the Dahlgren manuscript. The next step, which begins tomorrow, is to plug the changes into the computer, and then it’s ready to be circulated to a few friends for review and comment. I’m finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. I will have all of the changes entered into the computer by the end of the week, and then it goes out. I’m looking forward to taking a bit of a break before launching into the next project. Stay tuned.

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144 years ago today, September 17, 1862, the Battle of Antietam was fought. In a day-long slugging match along the banks of Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, that marked the climax of the first Confederate invasion of the North, the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia fought the bloodiest single day of the war. Lee’s army, outnumbered nearly two to one, held against McClellan’s assaults for an entire day. At the end of the day, 12,401 (2,108 killed, 9,540 wounded, 753 captured/missing) Union soldiers, and 10,316 (1,546 killed, 7,752 wounded, 1,018 captured/missing) Confederate soldiers–nearly 23,000 in all–were casualties. Lee waited for McClellan to attack him again on September 18, but McClellan had had enough. Finally, on …

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Ted Savas recently published a book titled Playing With the Enemy. The book tells the story of Gene Moore, whose extremely promising baseball career was interrupted by World War II. Moore was sent on a secret mission to guard German prisoners of war, and ended up teaching them to play baseball. It makes for quite a story, and it’s a terrific book. Gene Moore’s son Gary wrote the book to honor his father and tell his story.

The rights to Gene Moore’s story were recently sold to a major Hollywood producer, Gerald R. Molen, who is going to make a major Hollywood movie from it. Presumably, Gary Moore was paid a substantial amount of money for the movie …

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