I usually try not to bore you with war stories from the practice of law, and I have, for the most part, succeeded in keeping them out of this blog. I figure that you’re mostly not interested and that reading about my law practice is not what brings you here each day. However, something happened today that I just had to pass along. It’s not often that something leaves me completely flabbergasted and largely speechless, but it happened today.

Background: In the spring of 2007, a lawyer friend called me. His client had been sued, but had blown it off until it was too late. Because he’d been served with process and had not responded to the law suit within …

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Hat tip to reader Stu Younkin for bringing this to my attention….

From today’s issue of the Winchester Star newspaper:

Belle Grove soldiers on after Cedar Creek split
By Jason Kane
The Winchester Star

Middletown — For the first time in decades, Belle Grove Plantation commemorated the Civil War alone.

The entirety of this year’s Battle of Cedar Creek re-enactment took place on the adjoining Civil War Battlefield south of Middletown, leaving Belle Grove visitors to contemplate gentler things.

A league of women in hoop skirts told guests about everything from Civil War food rations to parlor games Sunday as the sounds of musket fire and cannon blasts echoed from the battlefield next door.

The separate events stemmed from a

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Hat tip to reader Todd Berkoff for bringing this to my attention.

The State of Delaware’s second-most famous Civil War general, Maj. Gen. Alfred Thomas Archimedes Torbert, has been honored with a monument by his hometown, Milford, Delaware. The photo comes from the Milford Beacon newspaper:

By David LaRoss
Milford Beacon
Fri Jul 04, 2008, 08:06 PM EDT

Milford, Del. –
Milford’s general finally has his statue.

On Sunday, June 29, the Milford Museum unveiled its monument to Gen. Alfred Torbert, a 7-foot bronze statue that now stands less than a mile down Walnut Street from where the Civil War general lived 130 years ago.

“This should have been done a long time ago,” said Marvin Schelhouse, chairman of the

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Featuring superb animated maps by master cartographer Steve Stanley, this presentation on the web site of the CWPT makes it abundantly clear why it is so important to stop the quarrying of the Cedar Creek battlefield.

It also amplifies and puts into graphic terms the magnitude of horrendous failure of the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation to protect the battlefield it is supposed to steward.

Please take a moment and click the links to generate a letter to Carmeuse making your opposition to the expanding mining operation known. It will cost you a few minutes and a $.42 stamp, but perhaps it will help to prevent the loss of pristine battlefield land to a limestone quarry. Once that land has been …

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I’m 47 years old, and a lifelong Philadelphia sports fanatic. It’s been 25 years since a Philly pro team won a world championship. In my lifetime, there have only been 5 of them (2 by the Flyers in 1974 and 1975, 2 by the 76’ers in 1967 and 1983, and the Phillies in 1980). Consequently, a true Philly sports fan is defined by pain and suffering and heartbreak. We know suffering, and we know heartbreak. “There’s always next year” is the constant refrain. In 1973, the 76’ers went 9-73 for the season, the worst record for a professional team ever. The Phillies are best known as the only team in the history of professional sports to roll up 10,000 losses…

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Please forgive my being quiet for the past couple of days. I had a major deadline to meet yesterday–I had two different briefs due yesterday, and had to allow my job to get in the way of my hobby. One brief was time-stamped 4:53 and the other 4:54–the Clerk of Court’s office closes at 5:00–meaning that I met the deadline. Now it’s back to business as normal.

I want to recommend a great book about a true American hero to you. Gunnery Sergeant Nick Popaditch enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1986 and served his country with great honor for 18 years. A photographer snapped his photo in Baghdad in 2003, smoking a victory cigar, with the downed statue of …

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They say that all good things must come to an end, and that, unfortunately, includes our vacation. We’re got home from North Carolina last night–it’s a wicked long drive, nearly 700 miles. It rained here while we were gone, and I had two weeks worth of lawn to mow this afternoon after we picked up the dogs from the place where we boarded them while we were gone. So much for vacation…..

The trip was fabulous. I did very little with respect to the Civil War. We visited a few of the handsome monuments erected by Dare County regarding the Burnside Expedition that captured the Outer Banks and to speak to the Outer Banks CWRT on Tuesday night. That went …

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There is simply nothing like the sound of the ocean. It’s a sound that is at once relaxing, reaffirming, and tantalizing. There are times when just hearing the sound of the waves crashing into the shore are what I need to get myself back in kilter and back in balance.

Due to job fluctuations and having to pay for care for my parents, Susan and I haven’t had a vacation since May 2006. Until now, that is. We’re in the Outer Banks of North Carolina this week, staying in a beach front house with some friends. I spent about an hour just flying a kite on the beach today. It was great therapy.

Other than to speak to the OBX …

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Yesterday, I mentioned that Mort Kunstler had called me to discuss a painting he’s planning on doing of the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry. Today, Don Troiani e-mailed me to let me know that he’s finally ready to begin working on a scene of the charge of the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry at St. James Church during the June 9, 1863 Battle of Brandy Station that he’s been planning for the better part of ten years. He asked whether I’d be willing to help and answer questions for him on it, and I agreed. I’ve already given Don pretty much everything that I have on this episode, but I am nevertheless more than happy to help.

That makes two scenes of the Lancers …

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I had a very interesting but surprising telephone call this morning. Renowned Civil War artist Mort Kunstler phoned me this morning, out of the clear blue sky. Mort has gotten interested in the Rush’s Lancers and figured out that I know something about them. He’s planning to do a painting of the Lancers, and got hold of me to see if I might be interested in helping. I’ve worked with Don Troiani, Don Stivers, and Dale Gallon in the past, and enjoyed each instance. So, I readily agreed to help Mort.

I quoted him my usual fee for helping: a copy of the print personally signed to me, and we had a deal.

I’m looking forward to working …

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