The CWPT issued this important press release today:

GOVERNOR TIM KAINE, LAWMAKERS, PROMOTE BATTLEFIELD PROTECTION EFFORTS IN OLD DOMINION

Remarks highlight unprecedented success of state’s Virginia Historic Battlefield Preservation Fund

(Fredericksburg, Va.) – At a news conference this morning, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine praised ongoing efforts to protect some of the Old Dominion’s most unique resources — its Civil War battlefields — and ensure balanced development and land surrounding these key historical landmarks. He reiterated the Commonwealth’s commitment to seeing these sites preserved for future generations to study and enjoy.

“Virginia is truly rich in history,” Kaine said. “Our state saw the majority of the Civil War’s largest and most significant battles. As the stewards of this American history, it

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I am deeply grateful to Chris Dixon, of Bridlington, East Yorkshire, England. Chris owns and operates a business selling old military medals. Chris has Dave Day’s Medal of Honor for sale. He was kind enough to forward the photos of the medal that appear here, as well as some more really useful material about Dave Day. Thank you, Chris.

I now know that Dave was married March 10, 1870 to Victoria Sophia Falck, the 13th child of a wealthy Southern plantation owner and slaveholder. “Her engagement to Northerner Day caused consternation not only to her family but also the three other young men to whom she was simultaneously engaged. Gallant to the core, all her former beaux sat in …

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Here’s the other profile I promised last week, of one of the most colorful cavalrymen of the Confederacy.

Gilbert Jefferson Wright was born in Lawrenceville, Georgia, on February 18, 1825 as the son of Littlebury and Henrietta (Austin) Wright. He was educated in the local schools of the county and grew to be a giant of a man at 6’4’ tall. His friends called him “Gib”, a nickname that stuck with him for the rest of his life. “A man of social and convivial tastes, in his youth, he fell into bad habits and, during one of his drinking bouts, was so unfortunate to kill one of his comrades,” recalled a biographer. He was acquitted of murder.

When the Mexican …

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From the March 21, 2009 issue of The Gettysburg Times:

National Park Service may buy country club

The National Park Service is interested in purchasing the 60-year-old Gettysburg Country Club’s 120-acre property along the 700 block of Chambersburg Road,.
BY SCOT ANDREW PITZER
Times Staff Writer

The National Park Service is interested in purchasing the 60-year-old Gettysburg Country Club.

According to Gettysburg National Military Park spokeswoman Katie Lawhon, talks are ongoing between the park and the club’s owner, Susquehanna Bank. The club closed in 2008 because of financial difficulties.

“We have been in touch with the new owners,” Lawhon said this week. “We’ve been in negotiations with other owners for years, but could never come to a successful agreement.

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Several months ago, I posted an article that I had written about an interesting chap named David F. Day, who was awarded a Medal of Honor for participating in Grant’s “forlorn hope” attacks at Vicksburg in May 1863.

A reader named Dan Glasgow sent me an e-mail last night that I thought I would share with you:

I truly enjoyed your narative about David Frakes Day and his Metal of Honor. I knew his sons, Guy and George and how David started calling himseld Col. Day. His son said that his father was kicked by a mule when he was young and it left a scar on his cheek. Soon David started saying that the scar was from a

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I’ve decided to profile a couple of my favorite forgotten Confederate cavalrymen this week. Both ended the war as colonels, but both temporarily commanded brigades at times. Today’s profile is of Col. J. Fred Waring of the Jeff Davis Legion Cavalry, long a favorite of mine for the excellent diary of the last fourteen months of the war that he left behind. Thanks to old friend Paul F. Mullen for visiting the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah to get a couple of items on Waring for me. Finding biographical material on Waring is a challenge–he died young during a massive epidemic, so there is no obituary, and not much detail on his life has ever surfaced. What follows is the …

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The following passage, which comes from the quarterly newsletter of the Washington County, Maryland Planning Department, demonstrates the excellent preservation work being done around the Antietam National Battlefield by the local authorities. The folks from Washington County are quietly doing an excellent job:

RURAL LEGACY PROGRAM AWARDED $ 460,700
FOR FISCAL YEAR 2009

Washington County received a Rural Legacy Program award in the amount of $460,700 for Fiscal Year 2009 at an award ceremony by Governor Martin O’Malley on December 3rd. Senator Don Munson was on hand for the award presentation. The funds will help Washington County to continue purchasing easements in the Antietam Battlefield area as we work towards our overall county goal of 50,000 acres under permanent preservation.

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Even at the height of this horrific recession, the House of Representatives has passed legislation to provide funding for battlefield preservation:

HOUSE PASSES BILLS TO PROTECT REVOLUTIONARY WAR, WAR OF 1812 AND CIVIL WAR BATTLEFIELDS

On March 3, 2009, the House of Representatives passed two battlefield protection bills that authorize federal grants for the preservation of significant sites associated with the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Civil War. Similar bills passed the House last year, but were not considered by the Senate before it adjourned.

H.R. 146, the “Revolutionary War and War of 1812 Battlefield Protection Act,” amends the “American Battlefield Protection Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-333)” to direct the Secretary of the Interior to establish

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Susan and I just made a quick overnight trip to Hockeytown, USA, which is also known as Detroit, Michigan. Thanks to fellow blogger Jack Dempsey, we got to watch the Columbus Blue Jackets destroy the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings 8-2 at Joe Lewis Arena last night. Many thanks to Jack for the tickets. It’s very cool seeing those 11 Stanley Cup banners and the retired numbers, and all of the other banners that fill the rafters of the venerable old arena. Considering that this is only our team’s 8th season, and we’ve never even made the playoffs, we don’t have such stuff hanging from our rafters (yet). The monuments to Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay and Sid …

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Time for a major rant.

To avoid embarrassing the person, I will not identify him, and I will not identify the blog where it took place, but I just got done drafting a lengthy critique of an essay on the coming of age of the Union cavalry. There was so much that was factually incorrect about what he wrote that I could not resist the temptation to point out how much was wrong. I was not gentle about it, either.

I have devoted most of my adult life to the study of Union cavalry operations in the Civil War. I have published fourteen books and a couple of dozen articles on the subject. I’ve written more than a million words …

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