The last several days when I’ve tried to click on the link for Adam Hendel’s blog, I’ve gotten a message that indicates that it can’t be found on Blogger’s site. That means that it’s been deleted from Blogger’s system. As a result, I have deleted the link to it from this site. If anyone knows where Adam’s blog can be found, I will be happy to put up a new link.

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I’ve added a link to Michael Aubrecht’s blog, Pinstripe Press Blog. Michael is a regular reader of this blog, and I’ve enjoyed interacting with him.

There are two reasons why I haven’t added his blog previously.

First, and foremost, it’s only partially about the Civil War, and the Civil War posts often delve into religion, an area that, to be very honest, holds very little interest for me. However, Michael has some good and interesting insights, and I think that it’s appropriate for me to share those with you since I read them myself.

Second, it’s in part devoted to the New York Yankees, the greatest team money can buy. As someone who firmly believes that George Steinbrenner is, …

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One of my partners in the new law firm practices only in the realm of sports and entertainment law. In other words, he’s an agent. Most of his clients are NBA coaches, but he also works with some entertainers as well. He recently took on a new client, a female reporter at our local NBC affiliate.

Our law firm is brand new. It was only formed 90 days ago. The suburban community where we’re located has been trying to attract new business, so it wholeheartedly supported my partners when they decided to light there, offering goodies such as tax abatements and the like to sweeten the pot and make it worth their while to do so. The town fathers wanted …

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Although I’ve devoted most of my life to the study of the Civil War and I have visited lots of battlefields, there are still plenty I have never seen but definitely want to visit. That list includes, in no particular order:

1. Stones River
2. Pea Ridge
3. Champion Hill
4. Most of the battlefields around Atlanta (or what’s left of them, anyway)
5. Nashville (or what little bit is left of it)
6. Franklin
7. Brice’s Crossroads
8. Aiken, SC (site of another instance where Judson Kilpatrick was badly surprised and barely got out with his command intact)
9. Sailor’s Creek

And there’s one place that I’ve only visited once for a total of five hours–nothing remotely close to …

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Ted Savas informed us today that the Stuart’s Ride book will ship from the printer tomorrow. At long last, we have a book!

For those who’ve expressed an interest in having a copy of this book, sit tight just a few days longer, and I will have books in hand.

I’m excited. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of this one, probably more than any other book I’ve ever written. I can’t wait to see the finished product.

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The Dahlgren bio is the first full-length biography that I’ve written solely on my own. That he died in combat at 21 years, 11 months made it relatively easy from the perspective of there being a very finite period of time to cover. The fact that I managed to get 100,000 words out of it should tell just how jam-packed this young man’s life actually was, and how much he accomplished in terms of military deeds in less than two years in the army.

So, the bigger question–as yet unanswered–is how much of a challenge it is going to be to tackle the life of someone who lived a long full life and accomplished many things in the years after …

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When I choose the topics for my books, I do so understanding that they will often have limited commercial appeal. Let’s face it–a book about a cavalry battle that took place on the grounds of Fort Bragg in the closing days of the war will have a far more limited commercial appeal than, say, the 147th book devoted to Pickett’s Charge. I get that. It makes a certain amount of sense to me.

At the same time, I don’t do this to lose money, either. In a perfect world, I would actually make some decent money from one of these projects. The book on Stuart’s Ride seems to offer the best hope of really selling a lot of books and …

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Sean Dail posted a note on his blog today indicating that he had decided to shut down his blog for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is a distinct lack of time to devote to the task of regular blogging. I’ve known Sean for a long time, and I know him to be a smart and diligent student of the Late Unpleasantness, and I regret seeing him abandon blogging. However, I understand, and, as he has suggested, I will be removing the link to his blog that has graced the list on the right side of my blog for the past several months.

Please stay in touch, Sean. Your insights will be missed.

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I’m now in the process of tweaking and editing my own work. I typically prefer to get things down on paper and then do a lot of tweaking, editing, and rewriting as I go. I print out the manuscript and work off a hard copy. I will typically take three or four passes at it before entering the revisions into the computer. I use a different color ink for each pass in order to make it easy for me to tell when I’ve made a change. For this first pass at the Dahlgren manuscript, I’m using a green pen. The next pass will be red, the third pass will be in purple, and if I do a fourth pass at …

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At the risk of sounding rude and/or ungrateful….

This is my blog. This is where I get to rant. You, my readers, also get to rant in the comments.

However, that privilege is not absolute. Nobody gets to make personal attacks in the comments, and nobody gets to shanghai them for their own agenda.

What I will not do is spend what little precious free time I have moderating my own blog. When I started this, that was never within the realm of contemplation, and I am not willing to do it. Likewise, the abuse of the comments section is not something that I will tolerate. My way of dealing with problems is to eliminate them. If the comments continue …

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