In response to yesterday’s post, reader Dave Kelly wrote, in part, “You’ve been off for 5 days. Figured Savas had you electricity cut off and your house surrounded so he could go to press without another stop.” While Dave was obviously jesting when he wrote that, the point actually was well-taken, and I thought I would offer an explanation for the uncharacteristically long spell of silence.

Last week, I posted about the horrific nightmare that we faced in trying to fix bollixed-up notes for one of the chapters that happened when our researcher waited until the last possible second to get us new material, and we had to plug it into our manuscript when it was already in the page …

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I would be remiss if I failed to mention the 141st anniversary of an event as important as the surrender of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House. 141 years ago today, Lee surrendered his army to Ulysses S. Grant in Wilmer McLean’s parlor. The surrender was the culmination of a relentless pursuit of Lee’s retreating army by the Federals in what was clearly Phil Sheridan’s finest hour.

Lee’s surrender began the process of healing the national wounds rent before and during the Civil War. In large part, this was due to Grant’s realization that he had to offer his adversary generous terms of surrender so that the Confederates could give up their cause with dignity. …

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Dimitri Rotov had a very interesting post/rant on his blog today. He mentioned that I, along with several others, have been encouraging him to write a book about McClellan for some time now. I really think that Dimitri is the logical choice to write the definitive study of Mac’s life, and I can only reiterate the hope that he will do so.

Dimitri wrote:

I may write a book. I’m thinking about it. But I don’t feel obliged to do so.

Can this blog be a book substitute? I think it can. It requires a leap of faith, perhaps, over the bound book culture. It requires a dispensation: “He’s not being lazy or unfocused.”

Can pathbreaking research be published on …

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Dimitri, I tried to e-mail you earlier today, but your server bounced it with a message that you had exceeded your disk storage quota for e-mails. You might consider doing a little housecleaning. Sorry for posting this this way, but I have no other way to reach you if your e-mail is bouncing.

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Today, J. D. got another package of newspaper articles from our Washington researcher, this time from the New York Herald. Once again, our researcher was well aware that we have been working on this Stuart’s Ride project for the better part of two years, and only just now got around to providing us with these articles at the very last possible moment. Of course, we’re even closer to the drop dead date for adding material now than we were last week when we got the articles from the Baltimore American that I posted about last week.

There was even better stuff this time around. For instance, if you read Jeb Stuart’s report of his activities during the Gettysburg Campaign, …

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Today, it finally hit me that spring has finally sprung. In no particular order, I’ve noticed the following things today:

1. The daffodils are out everywhere. They’re my favorite flower, because they mean it’s spring time.

2. Tomorrow is opening day for major league baseball. If you need proof that it’s spring, I can’t possibly think of better proof than that.

3. We’ve slept with the windows open for the last couple of nights.

4. I have a sinus infection. That’s always a sure sign that it’s spring.

5. One of my neighbors had a new roof put on this week. Nobody does that sort of work in the winter time unless it’s absolutely necessary.

6. The NHL regular season …

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Earlier this week, my co-author for the Stuart’s Ride book, J. D. Petruzzi, unexpectedly received a large pile of copies of articles from the Baltimore American newspaper from June and July 1863 from the researcher that we use to find things for us at the Library of Congress. Never mind that our researcher has been aware of this project for more than a year–he just now got around to sending us this stuff, right at very last possible moment.

To our surprise, J. D. found a number of really useful articles for the project in this pile. In particular, we were able to flesh out our discussion of Corbit’s Charge at Westminster, MD a great deal thanks to some of …

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In February, James L. Swanson published his book Manhunt, which is a narrative of the pursuit and ultimate killing of John Wilkes Booth by Federal forces. The book covers a period of twelve days, and is the most detailed narrative of these events yet written.

This book has lots of problems. First, and foremost, the author states specifically that he takes liberties with sourcing. He adopts the old “I don’t want to bog down the reader with frivolities like notes” trick, which many do when they’re trying to cover up the lack of depth of their research. This book fails to meet my tests for academic standards, which makes it difficult for me to endorse it.

At the same …

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Loyal reader Russ Bonds passed this tidbit along. Thanks to Russ for bringing it to my attention.

I found this to be one of the most appalling, inconceivable things I’ve seen in a long time.

Present is worst of times for historical markers
By DAVID PENDERED
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/27/06
All that’s left of the historic marker at the site where Atlanta surrendered to Union Gen. William T. Sherman’s army is a broken post that bows toward the ground.

The actual marker was knocked off the post by a truck last summer, and the state doesn’t have $300 to fix it.

“The problem is we don’t have a marker shop to repair or replace it,” said Linda Moye, …

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Yesterday, Kevin Levin wrote:

While I understand Eric’s point I would like to hear more about the virtues of obscurity. What exactly is important about an obscure military event in the Civil War like the Wilson-Kautz Raid? I know people here in Charlottesville who can tell me close to every single detail about the small engagement at Rio Hill which led to the capture of Charlottesville and the University of Virginia. When I hear the name Rio Hill I immediately think of the IHOP and an order of pancakes. Yes, I learn about new people, but it seems to me what I learn fails to reveal anything new about the soldiers – same stories and experiences in a different time …

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