Here’s a blog for Philadelphia sports fans. The name sums it all up: City of Pain. It’s been 25 years since any Philadelphia professional sports team won a championship (the 1983 76’ers, to be precise), and there’s no end in sight to the suffering.

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Food for another blog entry – “Top ten visitors centers for a battlefield.”

So wrote Craig Swain in a comment to the last post. “What a great idea,” I thought to myself. So, here goes….

One note of caution. I’m not a Western Theater guy. I’ve been to Vicksburg once, and while I’m sure I was in the VC, I have absolutely no recollection of it whatsoever. I’ve never been to Stones River. I’ve been to Chickamauga and Shiloh once each and have only the vaguest of memories of the visitor centers there. Consequently, you’re not going to find any major Western Theater VC’s on this list.

1. Gettysburg. It’s the granddaddy of them all. Old, dumpy, dingy, dark, …

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Friday also included my final visit to the decrepit old visitor’s center at Gettysburg. We made a brief stop there, and I took advantage of it to get one last look around the old dump. The place is long past its prime, crowded, dark, dingy, and obsolete. But I’ve spent a lot of time in that building, and it carries some good memories. The place may be a dump, but I will miss it.

The old VC never should have been built where it was, and it will be nice to see that portion of the battlefield restored to its 1863 appearance. The new one looks really nice–it’s quite large, and it looks like it’s going to be a state …

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I thought I would provide an after-action report of the weekend’s adventures. I drove to Chambersburg on Wednesday, as the program began early on Thursday morning. I got there in time to have dinner with Al Ovies to celebrate my birthday. We made the mistake of going to a TGI Fridays for a bad meal, but it was good getting caught up with Al. Al’s a chef in Miami, and his hours at work don’t permit him to come out to play very often.

Thursday morning, Ted Alexander and I had a busload of about 26 people covering George Armstrong Custer during the retreat from Gettysburg. We covered Monterey Pass, Smithsburg, Hagerstown (the July 6 fight), Hagerstown (the July 12 …

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I’m home after a long and exhausting weekend. I will post details about it tomorrow evening, after I’ve had a chance to rest a bit.

As to anyone who was disappointed by my having to back out of the program at Liberty University, I want to apologize. Unfortunately, the decision to back out of the program was the result of an irreconcilable scheduling conflict. Over a year ago, I agreed to do a program on Custer in the Civil War for Ted Alexander’s Chambersburg Civil War Seminars series. I told Ted sure, and knew that he was planning on doing the program this year, but didn’t know when. Then came the invitation to speak at Liberty, which I accepted. And …

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I am at an event in Chambersburg, PA. More tomorrow.

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My good friend Mike Nugent passed this along:

Important!

The Perryville City Council still has to vote on this development. You can voice your opposition by calling city hall at 859-332-8361. They’re keeping a log of all calls. The City Council will vote on this Issue on April 3. Call today and urge your like minded friends to call too!

If you care about battlefield preservation, pick up that phone and make the call.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Mike.

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For those of you who read this blog only for the Civil War content, you will probably want to skip this post, as it has absolutely nothing to do with the Civil War.

I grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs in the 1970’s, so I guess it was inevitable that I would become a fan of Bruce Springsteen and his legendary E Street Band. Perhaps it was the poetry of his lyrics. “I found the key to the universe in the engine of an old parked car,” he proclaimed in his anthem of youth, “Growing Up”. As a teenager, that particular line REALLY resonated with me.

Perhaps it was the gritty character studies that he painted:

The screen door slams

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I’m pleased to introduce a guest blogger for a forgotten cavalrymen profile. My friend Tonia J. “Teej” Smith has spent years researching the saga of the hanging of Col. Orton Williams and his cousin, Walter “Gip” Peter as spies at Fort Granger, near Franklin, Tennessee. Williams was a cousin of Mrs. Robert E. Lee, and the hanging hit the Lee family hard. Here’s Teej’s profile of forgotten cavalryman Orton Williams.

Col. William Orton Williams, P.A.C.S.

Orton Williams was born in Buffalo, New York on July 7, 1839, the son of Captain George W. Williams of the Topographical Engineers and America Peter Williams, a Georgetown socialite. Through his mother, he was a direct descendant of Martha Washington and a cousin of

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There is apparently a very significant threat to the very pristine battlefield at Perryville:

Development eyed near Kentucky’s biggest Civil War battlefield

By BRUCE SCHREINER
Associated Press Writer

LOUISVILLE, Ky. –Homes and businesses may someday fill the landscape on a stretch of pristine property once within earshot of cannonfire from Kentucky’s bloodiest Civil War battle.

Landowner Pete Coyle envisions turning the approximately 34-acre tract on the edge of Perryville into a housing subdivision along with an assisted living center and limited commercial development.

A national Civil War preservation group is so worried by the proposed development that it placed the Perryville battlefield site on a list of the nation’s 10 most endangered Civil War battlefields.

The designation this week comes

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