My friend and fellow student of the 1865 Carolinas Campaign, Col. Wade Sokolosky (U. S. Army), sent me an e-mail from Afghanistan today. Wade’s been in Afghanistan for four months now, and has another eight months to go. He was recently promoted to full colonel from lieutenant colonel, and is career Regular Army. He’s the sort of guy that we Americans owe a great deal to, and I am always conscious of that when I talk to him.

Along with his good friend Maj. Mark Smith (U. S. Army, retired), Wade is one of the two authors of a terrific book titled “No Such Army Since the Days of Julius Caesar”: Sherman’s Carolinas Campaign from Fayetteville to Averasboro, which …

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It’s been quite a while since I’ve had a full-blown rant about something. This one’s been building all day. However, it has absolutely nothing to do with the Civil War, so be warned when you read it.

An annual event that I dread like the plague happens this Saturday. Like the coming of spring and the fall of the first snow, it happens every year, and every year, I cringe and want to hide.

Saturday is the first Ohio State football game. OSU football is a bizarre and terminal disease for which there is no cure. It afflicts otherwise normal people and turns them into blathering, drooling idiots singing along to “Hang on Sloopy.” This is a city of more …

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I learned something new today.

Apparently, I have an inimitable pen, whatever that means. 🙂

The Washington Times has a book blog that periodically features Civil War books. The most recent entry had a very favorable review of One Continuous Fight which I will share with you here:

“Lee In Retreat” book out — good read

The Civil War (View Blog)

POSTED July 31 2008 9:55 AM BY MARTHA M. BOLTZ

From the inimitable pen of Eric Wittenberg and friends, author of numerous highly regarded works of history, comes a new book entitled “One Continuous Fight: The Retreat from Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, July 4-14,1863.”

Even though the title is probably one of the

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Last week, I unexpectedly received an e-mail from a fellow named Paul Stokstad. Mr. Stokstad was writing to invite me to join Newspaper Archive.com, his employer. Let me say thank you to Mr. Stokstad for the free membership, which was most unexpected, but gratefully accepted.

I’ve had a chance to noodle about the site a bit and to do a few searches. There are thousands of old newspapers digitized here, meaning that this is an incredibly useful research tool for anyone interested in researching historical newspapers, as I often am. There are lots of really obscure papers here that are not available anywhere else, meaning that I will be able to tap resources that I’ve never accessed previously. I …

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There are three major corporations that I absolutely despise. I absolutely and categorically refuse to do business with two of them. Unfortunately, I am forced to use the third’s products, whether I want to do so or not. I hate Microsoft because of its crappy software and its monopolistic tendencies. I use its products because I have to, not because I have any desire to do so. I refuse to do business with Starbucks. I don’t drink coffee anyway, but I find their predatory tactics of specifically targeting locally owned business to drive them out of business disgusting.

The third is the Walton empire. Wal-Mart is notorious for forcing its way into communities and killing off local businesses, whether it’s …

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More than two years ago, I breathlessly announced that I was leaving a law firm where my name was on the door as a named partner to join another law firm. I was very excited about the prospect, as I really thought it was going to be a good opportunity for me. It turned out not to be for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that the law firm has an unworkable compensation plan, and I couldn’t afford to stay there (I’m not alone; two others have left for pretty much the same reason). That was my third attempt at trying to be a partner in a law firm, and all were bad experiences. At the …

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Susan and I attended the Wings of Victory Air Show, hosted by the Historical Aircraft Squadron, at the Fairfield County Airport in Lancaster, Ohio today. The show featured the F-16 East Coast Demo Team, the actual restored B-17 bomber that was featured in the movie Gathering of Mustangs and Legends that we attended last October, but what could be? It was well-done, and very well-attended. The weather was spectacular, and I’m very glad we went.

Unfortunately, we forgot the good digital camera, so Susan had to work with the 1.3 megapixel camera in her cell phone. Not ideal, but with the gorgeous weather, it worked out okay. Here are the best photos.

I wish I could understand why there …

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J.D, Mike Nugent and I have all agreed to participate in a seminar on the Battle of Monterey Pass being conducted by the Monterey Pass Battlefield Association on November 8, 2008. Other participants include Kent Masterson Brown, Ted Alexander, and John Miller, the authority on all things Emmitsburg in the Civil War. All proceeds of the program go to benefit the MPBA, which is working hard to preserve land and add interpretation to the battlefield at Blue Ridge Summit, which marks the largest engagement fought in Franklin County, Pennsylvania during the Civil War. Please come check it out.

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For the second time, John Maass has decided to pull the plug on his excellent blog, A Student of History, which has long been one of my favorite blogs. I understand the time constraints he faces and will miss the blog. Goodbye and good luck, John.

I’ve deleted the link to his blog, but will gladly restore it once more if John gets back into the game.

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Time for another in my infrequent series of profiles of forgotten cavalrymen….

Andrew Jonathan Alexander was born to a wealthy and influential family in Woodford County, Kentucky on November 21, 1833. He was one of six children; one of his sisters married Maj. Gen. Frank P. Blair, the influential Missouri Congressman. His father died in a mill accident on the family estate, and his mother went blind. Opposed to slavery, Mrs. Alexander freed her slaves and settled in St. Louis. Andrew attended Centre College in Danville, Kentucky and then returned to St. Louis, where he was engaged in business pursuits when war came in the spring of 1861.

He was commissioned in the Regiment of Mounted Rifles as a second …

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