Wow…what a long day….

We just got home from a whirlwind trip to Virginia for a speech to the Louisa County Historical Society on the Battle of Trevilian Station. It’s about 450 miles from my house to Louisa, so it’s not exactly around the corner.

We left on Friday afternoon, 2.5 hours later than I had wanted or planned to leave. It meant that we had to make most of the trip in the dark, and much of it in pretty heavy snow. It started snowing while we were still in Ohio and continued snowing the whole way through West Virginia, only quitting about the time we crossed from West Virginia into Virginia. We didn’t get to Louisa until 11:00 …

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About a month ago, I was contacted by the Civil War Preservation Trust to see whether I would be a signatory of a letter from concerned Civil War historians to the CEO of WalMart regarding the proposal to construct a WalMart superstore on a piece of the Wilderness battlefield.

The letter was released today, and it’s really quite remarkable. Over 250 historians have endorsed it. Here it is:

Mr. Lee Scott, President and CEO
Walmart Stores, Inc.
702 SW 8th Street
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716-8611

Dear Mr. Scott:

I urge you in the strongest possible terms to pursue alternate building locations for the Walmart Supercenter proposed in Orange County, Virginia. The site currently under consideration lies within the historic boundary of

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I apologize for being quiet the past couple of days. I’ve been busy finishing a couple of pieces on the Philadelphia Phillies for the baseball project. I’m just having a blast working on this project.

Major hat tip to Drew Wagenhoffer for bringing the existence of this blog to my attention. The good folks from Civil War Interactive have started running news items in a blog format. I highly recommend it, and I have added it to the blog roll.

Since he’s taking an indefinite sabbatical from blogging, I have also removed the link to Paul Taylor’s blog. If he starts blogging again, I will immediately add a link back in.

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Those of you who read this blog regularly know how much I love baseball, and you also know how much I love the Philadelphia Phillies.

As some of you may know, Michael Aubrecht and I are working on bringing to fruition an idea for a book on baseball that I cooked up in 1974, when I was 13. I came up with the idea of doing a study of the worst teams in the history of Major League Baseball, which I wanted to call The Losers. I picked out some teams and thought it would be fun to do the research for a project like this. I even wrote a letter to Joe Garagiola, then a star announcer for …

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From today’s issue of the Chester, VA Village News:

Historical Park Soon to Close Doors to Public

Dec 3, 2008 – 12:32:55 PM

Effective January 2, 2009, Pamplin Historical Park and the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier in Dinwiddie County will be open by reservation only. Guests wishing to visit the Park may do so by making a reservation forty-eight hours in advance. Admission fees for non-members will be $100 for a group of up to ten people, and $10 per adult for groups of more than ten. Park members may make reservations twenty-four hours in advance with no minimum numbers and no admission fee.

The Park will continue to offer all reservation-based programming as usual, including

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Regular readers of this blog know that I am constantly on the search for neo-Confederate idiocy, as I believe strongly that fighting this nonsense is one of the greatest services that I can provide.

On January 13, 2008, I made a declaration that the neo-Confederate grand champion for 2008 had been identified and crowned. Well, it turns out that that declaration was very premature, because the true grand champion has emerged. Thanks to Kevin Levin for finding this piece of work and bringing him to my attention.

From the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center, I give you Olaf Childress, the 2008 neo-Confederate grand champion and grand champion hater of the year:

The Last Word
Neo-Confederate ‘Buries’ 14th

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Downtown Cleveland features one of the most beautiful and impressive Civil War memorials anywhere in the country. The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial sits in the heart of downtown Cleveland, and it’s nothing short of spectacular. No visit to Cleveland is complete without at least driving by it and admiring it. It’s a can’t miss.

From today’s issue of the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Civil War museum in Soldiers and Sailors Monument may find permanent home in former BP Tower

Relics housed on Public Square

Monday, December 01, 2008

Grant Segall
Plain Dealer Reporter

For 104 years, Cleveland’s beloved Soldiers and Sailors Monument has doubled as a crammed Civil War museum.

The Public Square fixture closed in June for interior renovations,

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Reader Don Hallstrom left the following comment this morning:

Hello Eric

I believe you are reviewing posts prior to them getting to your blog. I hope so as this is off subject, but wanted your opinion and wasn’t really sure how to contact you other than the blog. I certainly don’t want to clutter the blog up. If you could respond to the email listed, I would greatly appreciate it. I’ve been checking in with your blog weekly for about a year and also reviewing the archive. I’ve really enjoyed the information.

At one point you and fellow blogger Drew Wagenhoffer over at his blog have both commentted about White Mane Publishing and their products.

I’ve been collecting Civil War

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Like so many other millions of Americans, Susan and I will be hitting the road this afternoon, headed to my hometown of Reading, PA for Thanksgiving. It’s going to be a long and miserable drive, but hopefully, the joy of spending holidays with one’s loved ones makes the suffering worthwhile.

To each and every one of you who give part of your day to indulge my rantings, we wish you a joyous, happy, and healthy Thanksgiving. In spite of these very grim economic times, we still have plenty for which to be grateful, including the hope of a new beginning.

Personally, I am thankful for each of you for the time you spend here.

Have safe travels, enjoy the turkey …

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From today’s issue of the Hanover Sun newspaper:

Spot for Lincoln statue sought
By ERIN JAMES
Evening Sun Reporter
Posted: 11/25/2008 08:36:06 AM EST

Anyone got room for a nine-foot-tall statue of Abraham Lincoln?

A Salt Lake City-based sculptor has offered his latest art project to Gettysburg Borough officials on the condition that they find a place for it. And the town’s Borough Council is open to suggestions from the public – though they’ve got a list of potential Lincoln locales already in the works.

At the top of the list are two locations – the Adams County Public Library and Alumni Park, both on Baltimore Street in the borough – that council members Susan Naugle and John Butterfield said

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