Well, I seem to have come down with either a really bad cold, or, potentially worse, a sinus infection. I feel atrocious as I write this. My head feels like it’s in a vice, and my sinuses are pounding. So, please forgive me if I don’t write much for the next few days until I get to feeling better. Thanks for understanding.

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I need to take a moment to rant about people abusing the privilege of posting comments to this blog. I had an episode today that requires a response by me.

Note to the Nathan Bedford Forrest fan who apparently doesn’t like my take on his boy: you do NOT get to insult me on my own web site and expect me to approve your comments so that they are posted for the world to see.

Feel free to disagree with me. I welcome the challenge. Feel free to use facts to demonstrate to me where I’m wrong. I’m usually the first to admit that I’m wrong and tip my hat to the person who points it out. However, if you …

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Dimitri Rotov astutely points out that I have two books being published by Savas-Beatie Publishing in a period of about ninety days. While that’s certainly a true statement, it was never intended to be that way. I thought I would take a moment and explain how it happened.

My own publishing company, Ironclad Publishing, was originally going to publish the Monroe’s Crossroads book. However, a little over a year ago, we, the owners of Ironclad, made a unanimous group business decision to publish only those books that are a part of our The Discovering Civil War America Series for the time being. Because the Monroe’s Crossroads battlefield is stuck in the middle of the drop zones at Fort …

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This morning, legendary martial arts star Chuck Norris was on the morning radio show that I listen to on a daily basis. Norris was promoting his new novel, The Justice Riders, set against the backdrop of the Civil War.

Here’s the description of the book from Amazon.com: “The Justice Riders offers action-packed historical fiction from America’s favorite action hero Chuck Norris. Book one in the series takes place as the Civil War ends and the Old West begins. General William T. Sherman commissions Ezra Justice to form a secret band of cavaliers who will help end the war between North and South, and Justice complies with a pro-Union posse of diverse multinationals second to none in their fighting abilities. …

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There are times when people amaze me. I can think of a number of instances when I have published something, and then somebody turns up and presents me with something pertinent that makes me say, “Damn! Where was this when I REALLY needed it?” Two good examples come to mind. One was a few months after the publication of my first book, someone gave me a letter by Williams Wells that is the only known account of Farnsworth’s Charge written by Wells himself. I wish that I could have had the letter when I wrote the book, as it definitely would have changed my interpretation of things. Likewise, a couple of weeks after my book on the Battle of …

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Hat tip to Dimitri Rotov for first pointing this out.

Richard F. Miller, the author of an excellent recent regimental history of the so-called “Harvard Regiment”, also known as the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, and who is a regular reader of this blog, works in radio news.

Richard will shortly be leaving for the hellhole of Iraq, where he will be serving as an embedded reporter with U. S. Army forces. As Dimitri points out, Richard will begin podcasting stories from the front soon. This will not be Richard’s first trip, and I can only hope that he will return to us safely and soundly, and that he stays out of harm’s way. Keep your head down, and …

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In an earlier post, I noted that when Brian Pohanka’s estate announced that substantial gifts had been left to two battlefield preservation groups, the Civil War Preservation Trust was missing from that list, and I wondered aloud whether that absence was a sign that perhaps Brian was unhappy with the way things had gone with the CWPT. It turns out that there was much more to it than met the eye.

Yesterday, Jim Campi of the CWPT called to discuss a variety of things with me, most notably the incident a couple of weeks ago when someone from the Morris Island Coalition used the comments to this blog to launch personal attacks on Dimitri Rotov because the poster does …

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Last month, I dealt with the issue of neo-Confederate hooey here. I related the problems I had with a member of the Civil War Discussion Group that I own and operate.

Last week, this clown went off on rant about black Confederates. Although the guy denies that he has a neo-Confederate agenda, he clearly does have one. If you read his posts about black Confederates, it becomes obvious that he’s beating the neo-Confederate drum as loudly as possible. I called him on it. I posted:

“Time for me to put on my moderator/owner hat.

This site does NOT exist for the pushing of any particular group’s agenda. Mr. Tucker has apparently decided that this web site exists to promote the …

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Gettysburg Magazine was Bob Younger’s baby. He started it, and he made the rules. Bob believed that the honor of being published in his magazine should be reward enough; if you wanted to be paid you had to ask for it. Those checks would come, but I always got the sense I was imposing on him to even ask. However, I have always insisted on being paid simply because of the principle of the thing.

One of Bob’s primary rules was no advertising. If you look at an issue of the magazine, you will find nary a single advertisement. This meant that either (a) the issue had to be paid for in full by subscription and bookstore sales or (b) …

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I wanted to let everyone know that I have an incredibly busy week doing lawyer stuff this week–something significant every day this week–and hence may not have time to post much this week. I hope I will be forgiven for permitting my job to get in the way of my hobby. I hate it when that happens.

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