June will mark the tenth anniversary of the publication of my first book, Gettysburg’s Forgotten Cavalry Actions. Over the course of those ten years, I’ve published a total of 13 books, and the 14th is due out at the end of May. Consequently, I’ve learned a few things over the course of that decade. Many of them are things that I wish that I knew ten years ago, but didn’t. In the hope that some of you might be able to benefit from my mistakes, or my learning curve, I’ve decided to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Gettysburg’s Forgotten Cavalry Actions by sharing some of those hard lessons in a series of posts that will follow. Each post will …

Continue reading

We’re now moving into my busy season. I have six upcoming events in the next ninety days, and I figured I would share information about them here in case anyone has any interest in attending any of them.

June 6-7: J. D., Mike Nugent and I have a bunch of book signings (something close to 6) scheduled in Gettysburg that weekend. The annual spring muster of the Gettysburg Discussion Group is also that weekend. Once our final schedule is pinned down, I will post it here.

June 13-15: This is the weekend of my 25th reunion at my alma mater, Dickinson College. Normally, I wouldn’t even mention this, but the College is having me do a book signing from …

Continue reading

I apologize for the lack of posts over the last few days. As I hadn’t been to see my parents since Thanksgiving, it was time for a quick visit. I left Thursday and got back this afternoon, which included 14 hours of driving time out and back. Because I am stuck with dial-up Internet access there, and there are software glitches with the USB modem that Apple sells for its MacBook computers that caused my computer to lock up each time I tried to dial in, posting from there really wasn’t an option.

Those of you who read this blog regularly are aware that my father had a major stroke last July. I can report that he is physically doing …

Continue reading

Hat tip to Rea Andrew Redd for first bringing this article to my attention:

Civil War Buffs Couldn’t See History For The Trees: National Parks Clear Trees From Original Battlefield ‘Sight lines,’ Delighting (And Appalling)Students Of History, Randy Dotinga, The Christian Science Monitor, April 23, 2008.

Even though he spends his time guiding tourists through the nooks and crannies of a Civil War-era house, retired librarian Harry Conay believes that nature can trump history. He’s watched in horror as the National Park Service has tried to make the Gettysburg National Military Park look more like it did on three July days in 1863. Officials are nearly a third of the way through cutting down 576 acres of trees that

Continue reading

Several years ago, I won a new blue baseball cap from the Civil War Preservation Trust. It’s one of my favorite hats; I can be seen wearing it here.

A couple of years ago, I decided to do something special with the hat. I decided to start collecting pins from Civil War battlefields and to display them on the hat. I’ve always liked the pins, but I couldn’t figure out what to do with them. Finally, I stumbled on the idea of wearing them on the hat, and a new tradition was born. It seems like a good way to honor the wonderful preservation work done by the CWPT, particularly since so many battlefields have benefited from the …

Continue reading

This is another post that has nothing to do with the Civil War, so for those who only read this blog for historical content, you may want to skip this post.

We saw our second of four old geezer band concerts last night. Billy Joel came to town.

The show last night was fabulous. The old guy is still a consummate entertainer. He joked about his lack of hair and the fact that’s he’s now 58 years old. Given that he has not released a new album of pop music since 1993, his continuing appeal is a testimony to his ongoing popularity. His first album was released in 1971, so he’s been around for nearly 40 years now. Nationwide Arena …

Continue reading

Fred Ray was kind enough to send along a review copy of his excellent book Shock Troops of the Confederacy: The Sharpshooter Battalions of the Army of Northern Virginia. Fred is the descendant of one of those sharpshooters, which is what got him interested in the subject.

To be candid, before Fred’s book was published, I was not aware that such special duty battalions even existed in Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, other than references to Eugene Blackford’s sharpshooters in the first day’s fighting at Gettysburg. The book has changed that misperception of mine.

Fred Ray has written an exceptional book. It’s a comprehensive tour de force of its subject, and one that should probably stand as …

Continue reading

Last week, I was contacted by a staff researcher at a TV production company that is producing shows for The Weather Channel. The concept for the series is intriguing. They’re producing shows to explore how the weather impacted certain major historic events. And one of the episodes will focus on how the weather impacted the retreat from Gettysburg. The researcher had contacted me to request a copy of One Continuous Fight: The Retreat from Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, July 4-14, 1863.

Not only does the series sound intriguing, the prospect of having our work mentioned in a major television production makes it all the more cool. Sarah Keeney, the marketing director …

Continue reading

For nearly as long as I’ve been fascinated by the Civil War, I’ve likewise held a fascination for the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic. Today is the 96th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic. The following article appeared in today’s issue of the New York Times. If true, it explains why she sunk so quickly and finally solves the ultimate riddle associated with the sinking of the great Cunard Line ship.

In Weak Rivets, a Possible Key to Titanic’s Doom

By WILLIAM J. BROAD
Published: April 15, 2008

For a decade, metallurgists studying the hulk of the Titanic have argued that the storied liner went
down fast after hitting the iceberg because the ship’s builder used substandard rivets

Continue reading

According to the statistics that I get from WordPress, this is the 700th post on this blog. When I started this exercise on September 24, 2005, I figured I would try it out, see if I liked it, and fully expected that it would probably go the way of the dodo bird much sooner than later. I had good reason to believe that–prior efforts to keep a journal petered out in a matter of a few weeks, and I figured that this would work out the same way.

Instead, I found that I really enjoyed having a place to vent, and that even more than having a place to vent, I discovered that I really enjoyed the interactions with the …

Continue reading