For the last eight years, I’ve been a dedicated fan of The Sopranos. I’ve seen all 86 episodes at least once. I’ve closely followed the travails of Tony Soprano and his two families, his personal family and his Mafia family. I believe that The Sopranos is quite possibly the finest television drama ever, as do many critics.

Tonight was the final new episode of the show. It was a moment that I’ve both looked forward to and dreaded all at the same time. In typical David Chase fashion, some loose ends were tied up, but many were left hanging. We will never know what happened to the Russian mobster from the Pine Barrens. We don’t know whether Sil will …

Continue reading

Dimitri Rotov has weighed in on the Gallagher issue on his blog. In an extremely well-written and insightful post, Dimitri does an excellent job of explaining why Professor Gallagher is just plain wrong. I will let Dimitri’s post stand as the last word on this particular subject, as there’s really nothing else to say. Thanks, Dimitri.

Continue reading

I want to make this very clear, and I want there to be absolutely no ambiguity about this, so I will state it very specifically:

My post last night was NOT intended to stir up the whole hornet’s nest of amateur vs. professional historians. I don’t want to get into that–we’ve beaten that poor horse to death here in the past, and we’re not going there now. This is not a broad brushstrokes sort of thing. It’s about one person and comments made by that one person.

To repeat: We are NOT going to re-open the amateur vs. professional can of worms in this discussion. Any comments that do will be deleted.

Continue reading

This evening, I got a call from J. D. Petruzzi, who wanted to share with me an interview with Gary Gallagher in the new issue of Civil War Times Illustrated magazine. The gist of it is that Gallagher doesn’t believe that microtactical history adds anything to the body of literature on the Civil War, and that there’s nothing to be gained by publishing more books on the Battle of Gettysburg. I vigorously disagree with him on this point, but the man is entitled to his opinion.

What REALLY bothered me is that he then proceeded to rip Plenty of Blame to Go Around by saying something to the effect of “who needs new books on Stuart’s role in the Gettysburg …

Continue reading

Major hat tip to Dimitri Rotov for pointing this out.

It seems that Google got a healthy taste of its own medicine. Check out Richard Charkin’s blog. That’s poetic justice if ever it existed.

And yes, Dimitri, I am very pleased. 🙂

Continue reading

My regular readers know I do a lot of conferences/seminars. I’ve tried to cut back over the past couple of years. It becomes too time consuming and keeps me away from the office too much at times. I’ve been trying to limit my participation in these events to a minimum, meaning that there are only a few that I will do regularly. One is the annual Middleburg Conference on Leadership in the Civil War, put on by the Mosby Heritage Area Association every October. Another is the annual Shenandoah Civil War Associates seminar, sponsored by James Madison University (this one starts a week from tomorrow, and I will be there; more on this later).

The other, which I try …

Continue reading

As promised, here is a brief sketch of Bvt. Brig. Gen. Pennock Huey. It is based in part on the information provided by his descendant, Pete Huey. Thanks to Pete for passing this information along. I did the rest. 🙂

Pennock Huey was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania on March 1, 1828. He was the son of Jacob Huey and Sarah (Davis) Huey of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Jacob was a Quaker farmer, known as “The Squire of Kennett Square” by virtue of his ownership of quite a bit of land in the area. The Hueys were affluent, and Pennock worked as a commission merchant.

Huey was appointed captain of Company D of the 8th Pennsylvania Cavalry when the regiment mustered …

Continue reading

Forty years ago today, the Israel Defense Forces launched the ultimate blitzkrieg. In a matter of a few hours, the Israeli Air Force, in a lightning surprise preemptive strike, destroyed more than 400 Arab aircraft, with the majority of them being destroyed on the ground of their airbases. From that moment forward, the Israelis had virtually uncontested control of the skies. The Israeli army not only defeated three Arab countries in just six days, it completely humiliated Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. Hoping to gain a buffer zone to protect it from Arab fedayeen raids and to give the country a protective buffer from hostile enemies surrounding the country of Israel, the IDF seized control of the Golan Heights from Syria, …

Continue reading

I sent Wayne Motts an e-mail today, asking for an update on Mike’s condition. Wayne called Mike, and here’s what he had to say in response:

Mike is back home at Fort Hood, TX which is his HQ base. He is now making appointments to see doctors. It is not known at this time whether he will have full use of his arm. He of course will have to go through rehabilitation. His future in the military at this point is uncertain. He is lucky to be alive.

At least he’s home, in one piece, and out of harm’s way. Let’s hope that he continues to improve and that he doesn’t lose the function in his arm. Get well soon, …

Continue reading

The primary source material from the Civil War that continues to surface never ceases to amaze me. It also makes me wonder what else like it remains out there, unknown and languishing….

As you may recall, I posted three consecutive posts on the significance of the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 1-3, commemorating the anniversary of the battle. The third and final post discussed the similarities between the Battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and suggested that nobody can ever truly understand the Battle of Gettysburg without having a solid understanding of the Battle of Chancellorsville. The last comment received on that post, which was posted on May 22, was by a fellow named J. Wistar “Pete” Huey, III. Pete wrote, …

Continue reading