As an author who always has multiple projects going on, each one of which is typically in a different stage of the production process, it can sometimes be difficult to keep all of it straight. Sometimes, I feel like I need a critical path schedule like those used in construction projects, which sets benchmark dates and prioritizes things.

That would, of course, be overkill, but it sometimes feels like it’s that confusing. Here’s an example. At present, I have the following projects going on:

1. Stuart’s Ride: waiting for the book clubs to make their decisions and then to the printer; nothing to do but wait.
2. Retreat from Gettysburg: In copy editing. Will require revisions upon completion (this one …

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I’m up very early this morning, which is very unusual for a national holiday. The dogs, and in particular, Aurora, were very restless this morning, so much so, in fact, that I figured it would be better all around if I just took them downstairs and let Susan sleep, things would ultimately be better for everyone. Being up this early enabled me to spend a few minutes reflecting on the true meaning of today’s holiday.

In the spring of 1866, a scant year after the end of the Civil War, Henry Welles, a pharmacist from upstate New York, came up with the idea to honor the dead of the recent conflict by decorating their graves. By 1868, Decoration Day was …

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“All history becomes subjective; in other words there is properly no history, only biography,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. Many sneer at such thoughts. Certainly, most academic historians would not agree with this assessment, and I don’t either. In fact, the overwhelming majority of my work has been writing battle narrative, not writing biography.

As my regular readers know, I’ve been working on a special labor of love, a full-length biography of Ulric Dahlgren. Tonight, after nearly ninety days away from it as a result of our having to put one dog to sleep and then bringing a new puppy into the house, I finally got back to working on it. I finally got to finish up the tenth chapter of …

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Old friend Rick Sauers tipped me off to the existence of ArchiveGrid, a new searchable database of available manuscript collections held at various institutions. For researchers who like to make extensive use of unpublished manuscript materials in their work, this is a truly indispensable tool. While they’re getting things ramped up and doing beta testing, access to the site is free. It will only be free until the end of June, and then it will become a for-pay service. Many thanks to Rick for bringing this extremely valuable tool to my attention.

I had my first chance to check it out last night for the first time. I did multiple searches on ArchiveGrid, looking for manuscripts that are pertinent …

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Today marks my second day back at the office after our vacation. I thought that I was pretty much caught up, as I did a lot of work while we were gone (technology makes doing so easy), I’ve been absolutely buried the last two days. I had four different appointments today, meaning that I got very little else done during the day today. I am pretty much caught up, but it means that I’m not making any real progress. That, of course, is the thing that I was dreading while I was gone, and my fears have come to pass.

This week–probably on Thursday night–I will get back to being productive on my Civil War work. Although it’s been since …

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Well, after two weeks on the road, we got home to Columbus this afternoon about 3:00. Rather than try to drive the nearly eleven hours straight through, we left yesterday and broke up the trip. My original plan was to spend last night in Charlottesville, which is really a beautiful town. However, yesterday was the University of Virginia’s graduation, and there were no rooms to be found anywhere remotely nearby. Instead, we decided to go on to another college town, Lexington, home of VMI and Washington & Lee University.

We found a hotel room and went in search of dinner and a theater to see The DaVinci Code. While driving around Lexington, we had a look at the two …

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Well, we have one more full day here before heading back to Ohio. We’re leaving on Saturday morning, and are planning on breaking up the trip by spending Saturday night in Staunton, VA. We will drive back to Columbus from Staunton on Sunday. While I REALLY miss our dogs, I really don’t want to go home. I could easily stay here, perhaps for years.

On Tuesday, we met up with Drew Pullen, who is a local historian who has done a great deal of work on the Civil War in the eastern portion of North Carolina. Drew is a retired school teacher who manages a bank branch on Hatteras Island. There’s probably nobody who knows more about this than Drew. …

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Greetings from Kill Devil Hills in the Outer Banks.

We had quite a day today. We visited the Lost Colony on Roanoke Island–got to see the tiny earthen fort there–and then drove the 50+ miles down the Outer Banks to the Cape Hatteras light house. We climbed up the thing–162 feet with 258 steps to get up there–and the wind was howling at nearly 40 mph when we got to the top–a line of thunderstorms was approaching, and it was BLOWING. Needless to say, we were plenty tired and feeling rubbery legged by the time we got down. The National Park Service ranger on duty up there took a photo of us with the digital camera. Hopefully, I can Susan …

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Today is the 142nd anniversary of the death of Maj. Gen. James Ewell Brown Stuart, who received a mortal wound at the Battle of Yellow Tavern on May 11, 1864. He was taken to Richmond, where he died the next day. When Robert E. Lee heard that Stuart was dead, he said, “He never brought me a wrong piece of information” and then turned away so nobody would see the depths of his emotional response. For once, Lee’s icy exterior came down after hearing of the loss of a much beloved subordinate. Stuart was the quintessence of the Civil War cavalryman. He had a real gift for scouting and screening, and brought verve and dash to an otherwise mundane job. …

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Greetings from Kure Beach, NC. We arrived here this afternoon. Kure Beach is the town where Fort Fisher is located, and the little inn where we’re staying is part of the northernmost reaches of Fort Fisher. It was certainly fought over during the Union assaults on Fort Fisher. It’s very cool being able to say that we’re sleeping on a battlefield, even if it has been completely obliterated. We will be here until Sunday morning, when we head for the Outer Banks. I’m speaking to the Cape Fear CWRT on Thursday night.

I spoke to the Raleigh Civil War Roundtable last night. It was a good talk, the first time I’ve done one on Monroe’s Crossroads. One fellow came up …

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