This afternoon, I had an e-mail from Bruce Franklin, the owner of Westholme Publishing, this afternoon regarding my Rush’s Lancers book. Bruce has been working hard at promoting the book, and has done a fine job of it so far. He gave me the best news of all so far today–the Pennsylvania Cable Network “PCN” wants to interview me about the Lancers for inclusion in their Pennsylvania Books program. The shows are one-hour long interviews with authors of books about Pennsylvania that air on Sunday nights.

It’s a real honor for my work to have been included in this series, and I’m very excited about the prospect of participating. In March, I will heading to PCN’s studios in Harrisburg, where I will film my hour-long interview. As the air date draws closer, I will advise those of you who can access PCN and who might have an interest in watching the program.

I think I might even wear a suit and tie for that one. 🙂

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Fellow barrister Jack Dempsey wrote this morning to ask me how to obtain a copy of the book from which I transcribed all of those reports on the Michigan Cavalry Brigade. I answered his question–Jack, I hadn’t realized you were a fellow member of the bar until you wrote–and then figured that I ought to share that information with all of you. Thanks for writing.

There is a company from Salem, Massachusetts called Higginson Books, which does print-on-demand (“POD”) reprints of local history books and genealogies. Several years ago, they also got into the business of doing POD reprints of rare regimental histories and memoirs. Higginson created a new division, called Ward House Books.

Ward House has a vast selection of regimental histories, including some that are EXTREMELY rare. Three examples will do. The history of the 8th New York Cavalry was written by Henry Norton, and it’s quite rare indeed. Ward House offers a POD reprint of it. I’ve only ever seen two copies of the regimental history of the 19th New York Cavalry, also known as the 1st New York Dragoons, and Ward House offers a reprint of it. The regimental history of the 6th New York Cavalry is one of the rarest of all, and Ward House offers it, too. At this point, I probably have something close to two dozen of the Ward House reprints.

The books themselves are well enough done, but they’re not going to win any beauty contests. From my perspective, that’s okay–I buy them to use them in my work, not for their pretty appearance. Ward House books have a no-frills cloth library-style binding, and the books are exact replica reprints of the originals, even including pencil marks, etc. The books are printed on acid-free paper, and are reasonably priced. Once or twice per year, Ward House has a major sale–25% off list prices–and, unless it’s something that I really need right then for my work, I usually wait for the sales to roll around to order books. Because the books are POD, it typically takes three weeks or so from the time an order is placed until the book ships, but it’s well worth it. It means that I now own copies of regimental histories that used to require a special trip to Carlisle to use.

I can wholeheartedly recommend Ward House’s replica reprints to anyone who’s interested in regimental histories, and I can likewise recommend Higginson’s local histories and genealogies to anyone interested in those topics, too.

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In 1971, when I was ten years old, I met Muhammad Ali at a hotel in Philadelphia. We were there for some family occasion, either a wedding or a Bar Mitzvah. I honestly don’t remember which; it’s been 35 years, after all. It was just a few months after his legendary first fight with Joe Frazier, in which he took a beating and lost to Smokin’ Joe in what is often called “The Fight of the Century”. Ali took time to sit and talk to me, a Jewish kid from the suburbs, and sat me in his lap while he did. He signed a postcard for me twice–one in his normal signature, and once in what he described as his “pretty” signature. I still have that postcard. It’s in a photo album upstairs, along with the rest of my collection of sports autographs. It’s one of my prized possessions.

From that moment on, I became a boxing fan. I love watching boxing. There’s nothing like it in the world–one-on-one combat. Just two boxers in the ring with nothing but their skills and their wits, and may the better man win. Some view it as barbaric. I view it as a thing of beauty. I’ve become something of a student of the game, but with so many weight divisions and so many governing bodies with so many watered-down championships, it’s difficult to keep it all straight. Still, though, I thoroughly enjoying watching a good fight.

Last night was devoted to boxing. Columbus is a pretty good boxing town. This is Buster Douglas’ home town, and Jerry Page, 1984 Olympic gold medalist has spent his entire life here. When Buster went through the motions of training for his only title defense–a loss to Evander Holyfield–I would see him running in the neighborhood where I lived at the time. Buster could have been a great one, but he had only one great fight in his heart. He just didn’t want it badly enough to be able to muster more than that one truly magnificent fight against Mike Tyson.

A local boxing promoter had a slate of professional bouts last night, and a client of mine sponsored the event and got ringside seats for doing so. My client knows I love boxing and invited me to come along. Susan and I went and saw eight fights. We then got home and saw a bout and a half on HBO. For a boxing fan, it was a great evening.

While driving home, I started thinking about what might have happened if some of the leading protagonists of the Civil War had donned the gloves. Just for fun, I started coming up with some pairings. Here are a handful of them.

In a heavyweight match, veteran defensive specialist and counterpuncher James “Old Pete” Longstreet takes on Winfield Scott “Winnie” Hancock, the aggressive but effective slugger from Pennsylvania.

In a middleweight bout, James Ewell Brown “Beauty” Stuart, the flashy and speedy technician, meets John “Old Reliable” Buford, the steady and hard-hitting fighter who is equally proficient with both hands.

William T. “Cump” Sherman, the enigmatic and inconsistent tactician, takes on defensive specialist Joe Johnston, who specializes in the rope-a-dope, in a welterweight match-up.

George “Slow Trot” Thomas, slow-moving but hard-hitting, takes on grizzled and unpopular veteran Braxton Bragg in a contest of two journeymen.

Judson “Little Kil” Kilpatrick, small, wiry, and aggressive, and clad in only his nightshirt, takes on big, hard-hitting veteran Wade Hampton in a seemingly uneven match between different weight classes.

And, in the main event, Robert E. “Gray Fox” Lee, the crafty, unpredictable and hard-to-hit veteran southpaw takes on Ulysses S. “Butcher” Grant, the aggressive and relentless slugger from Illinois, in a twelve-round title match.

Feel free to add some match-ups of your own. It really is a lot of fun.

LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!!

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I keep seeing advertisements for Norwich University’s on-line Master of Arts in Military History in all of the Civil War publications. Norwich is very much like VMI or the Citadel–it has a long and glorious history of training citizen-soldiers for the United States Army.

I am keenly aware that I do not have any academic background in history. I have not had a formal history class since the tenth grade, meaning that I am entirely self-taught. As I said, I am keenly aware of my lack of academic training in my chosen field of pursuit, and I often feel inadequate about it. I think it’s because I don’t much care for being described as an amateur historian.

I had a good long look at Norwich’s program tonight, as I’ve been curious about it. All but the last week of the program is done on line, though distance learning technology (which has really come a LONG way). The degree track is 36 credits, to be completed over 18-24 months, with a capstone project to be done at Norwich’s Vermont campus. I wasn’t particularly impressd with the course selections. They’re pretty much all survery courses with no opportunity to really hone in on a particular area of study or pursuit, and that surprised me. There are a lot of theoretical courses that simply don’t hold much interest for me.

It thus becomes a two-fold question: is it worth the investment of (a) time and (b) money? I already have three degrees. I don’t talk about it much, but I already do have a master’s degree, in international affairs, with a concentration in international security studies. I actually did a four-year dual degree program with law school. I therefore don’t feel a compelling need to get another degree just for the sake of getting another degree. It therefore has to be worth my while for me to really consider it. There’s also the fact that come June, it will be 20 years since I got my two advanced degrees, and it would really take a major adjustment to get me back into the swing of being a student again all these many years later.

I took a good look at the curriculum, the expense, and the time investment required and ultimately came to the conclusion that it’s just not worth pursuing for me. I have so little free time as it is that I can’t get too fired up about investing 15-20 hours per week of time that I really don’t have into a degree that ultimately has little utility for me and which won’t really do much to make money for me. In addition, the nature of my job is such that really busy times come in waves and are often impossible to predict. As set forth above, the curriculum really didn’t much excite me, and I can’t really justify the financial investment.

I have, therefore, come to the conclusion that this is not for me. It may very well be worth it for some, but for me, it’s just not. I am glad, though, that I indulged my curiosity and took the time to check it out. At least now I know what’s involved and have satisfied myself it’s not for me. And there is value in that.

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A fellow named Tony Larson posted several comments on this blog today. Mr. Larson appears to be a first-time poster, and his comments were very interesting. Mr. Larson’s blog exists to support Republican causes, and this is a VERY blue blog. I won’t hold Mr. Larson’s political beliefs against him, as his comments directed me to a Civil War cavalry regiment I had never heard of previously.

The comments, which can be found appended to this post, provide profiles of several Republican politicians who were Civil War veterans (including William P. Lord of the 1st Delaware Cavalry, who was mentioned in my profile of Maj. Napoleon Bonaparte Knight). One of those comments referred to the 1st Oregon Cavalry. I had never heard of the 1st Oregon Cavalry prior to read Mr. Larson’s comments this evening.

Here’s the entry on this unit from Wikipedia:

1st Oregon Volunteer Cavalry Regiment

The 1st Oregon Cavalry mustered out November 20, 1866.

Until this evening, I never even knew that this regiment existed. Never mind that it never fired a shot in anger at a Confederate soldier. They were still Union cavalrymen and entitled to recognition as such.

Thank you for making me aware of this regiment, Mr. Larson.

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I hate El Nino. It means that, while the weather here is mild in the winter time, it’s a soggy mess.

In the past fifteen days, we’ve had 4.3 inches of rain here in Central Ohio. That on top of the second or third wettest fall on record, and the wettest December ever. There is river and small stream flooding all over the state as a consequence of all the rain and nowhere for the water to go. Needless to say, my back yard, which does not drain well under the best of conditions, is a bottomless sea of muck.

Aurora is a year old today, and she has all of the youthful exuberance of any puppy. She loves to run and play, and she particularly loves running in the back yard. The problem with that is that golden retriever puppy + thick mud = incredible mess. And, the ground is so saturated that every time that she goes out, she comes back a muddy mess, even when she just goes out, does her business and comes right back. Mix in Nero, who is two years old and equally exuberant, and it makes for a hell of a mess.

On Saturday, she had to have six baths. On Sunday, it was another six. We spent all day, both days, bathing dogs, doing loads of towels, and mopping floors. Needless to say, it was NO fun. I’m not sure my back has yet forgiven me, and Susan’s knee just loves it, as you can imagine.

Tonight, we are celebrating. It’s going to go down to 17 here tonight and stay cold for at least a week. That means that the mud bog will freeze solid, and hopefully stay that way for a few days. I never thought I would be so happy to see really cold weather in my life. 🙂

I hate El Nino. And I REALLY hate mud.

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Hat tip to Mike Koepke for bringing this to light…

In late October 1864, Sterling Price’s Missouri raid reached modern-day Kansas City. Price was repulsed at Westport and then along the banks of the Big Blue River. I spoke to the Kansas City Civil War Roundtable in March 2005 and had an opportunity to tour the battlefields with Kansas City lawyer Dan Smith. With my interest in Alf Pleasonton and in cavalry operations in general, this was a natural for me. However, the tour was just a week or so after I had arthoscopic surgery on my left shoulder, and I was still in a sling and not an especially happy camper, but I really enjoyed my tour.

Most of the Westport battlefield is preserved in a municipal park in a very nice residential area of Kansas City, although the entire battlefield is not in the park. You can definitely see the lay of the land and get a pretty good idea of how the terrain impacted the fighting. Westport was Samuel Curtis’ infantry against Price’s main body and Marmaduke’s cavalry.

The Big Blue fight was primarily a cavalry fight between Pleasonton’s cavalry and Shelby’s Confederate horsemen that lasted over parts of two full days. The Confederates won the first day’s fighting, and the Union the second, when Pleasonton, in what was probably his finest moment, drove the enemy horsemen off. There were about 3,000 casualties between the Big Blue and Westport fights, and Price was driven away, his raid a failure. Thus, the fights at Westport and the Big Blue are the critical events of Price’s Raid.

Unfortunately, very little of the Big Blue battlefield has been preserved; most of it is an industrial park, and a highway cuts through the middle of it. About all that’s really preserved is the actual river crossing site, which is completely pristine. There is very little interpretation there, other than a few strategically placed cannon and a couple of roadside historical markers. It is, consequently, very, very difficult to get a good understanding of the terrain and how the fighting played out.

Fortunately, Dan Smith is leading the charge to preserve and protect the Big Blue battlefield. Fortunately, about 240 acres has come into public ownership, and one of the buildings blocking the view to the river has been razed. They plan to raze at least one more building, and hopefuly two. The local preservation group has an admirable agenda: “The plan seeks to open and restore the vistas across the battlefield to conditions existing in 1864 to provide a sense and feeling to the visitor of the historic context of the site,” the group’s development plan says.

The group hopes to raise $300,000 in private donations, $300,000 to $500,000 in city capital-improvement dollars and $1 million to $1.5 million in federal money. They hope to have an interpretive center and to bring attention to an important battle.

I commend Dan Smith and his group, and wish them nothing but the best in their efforts. I hope that they succeed and preserve an important battlefield site that easily could have been destroyed forever. And for those who have an interest in the Trans-Mississippi, and in Price’s Raid in particular, a trip to Kansas City to visit these two battlefields is a must. They are well worth a visit.

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This marks the 400th post on this blog since it was started in September 2005. I never figured it would be around long enough to reach anything close to 400 posts, but here you have it. It’s now been nearly a year and a half since I launched this little project of mine and created a my own little corner of the Internet for me to rant. I hope that my readers have enjoyed it as much as I have.

Stay tuned. There’s more to come.

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For those of you not familiar with the works of Roger D. Hunt, I thought I would take an opportunity to introduce you to some of the most valuable reference works on the Civil War out there.

Roger D. Hunt (along with his late friend and collaborator, Jack Brown) has specialized in compiling the biographies, necrology, and photographs of the Union brevet brigadier generals and regimental colonels. In the capacity, Roger has published three books to date. Each one of these books is one of the most useful resources in my library.

The first book was titled Brevet Brigadier Generals in Blue, which is an alphabetical compilation of every Union brevet brigadier general. The book includes a brief biographical sketch of each officer, the date of his death and place of his burial, and for about 95% of them, a photograph.

When he finished that work, Roger started on an even more ambitious project: documenting the regimental commanders of every Union regiment. The series is titled Colonels in Blue: Union Army Colonels of the Civil War. To date, two volumes have been published. The first, published in 2001, covers the New England states. The second, devoted just to the regiments of the State of New York, was published in 2003. The books follow the same format as Brigadier Generals in Blue, with the primary difference being that there is often more than one photograph included for the regimental commanders being profiled. These two books were published by Schiffer Books. These two volumes are oversized, and were published on Baxter paper. My only real complaint with them is that they were expensive, at $59.95 per book.

However, Schiffer apparently decided that there is not a sufficient market for these books, because it’s not going to be publishing any more in the series. It’s too bad, because the volumes published to date are handsome, well-done books. Since it’s been several years since the second book was published, I assumed that there would be no more.

I spoke to Roger this evening, and he told me some very good news. Roger informed me that Stackpole Books will be publishing the next volume in the series, which will cover the Mid-Atlantic states, including my home state of Pennsylvania. I will eagerly await its publication.

Roger Hunt has done some spectacular work on these officers, and I commend his work to you. He’s also a real gentleman, someone who is always willing to help and who is always willing to share the fruits of his labors. I called him a couple of days ago to ask his assistance on tracking down some information on the ever-elusive Col. William H. Boyd of the 21st Pennsylvania Cavalry, and, as always, Roger responded promptly, and with precisely the information I was looking for.

It’s also worth noting that Roger has amassed an awesome collection of images, and that he has donated most–if not all–of them to the United States Army Military History Institute’s photographic archive. Many of these images are not available elsewhere, and have been made available to researchers like me through Roger’s generosity. I doubt that there are many good recent Civil War books out there that don’t include at least one of Roger’s photos. His photos grace the pages of many of my books.

In my humble opinion, no serious Civil War library should be without these books, and I cannot say enough good things about them.

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A certain right-wing knuckle dragging Fascist decided to take a personal shot at me in the comments to this blog because he doesn’t like my politics. Disagree with me all you want and engage me in a dialogue, but don’t take personal shots at me because you think I’m wrong. That’s not acceptable, and I won’t have it. I told him that in an e-mail, and the response was to call me an anti-American leftist because I happen to disagree with this Administration’s policies pretty vigorously. When I responded to him, his latest was to say, “So, along with being anti-American you are a hypocrite.” Nice, huh? Classy, obviously well-thought out, and so eloquent to boot.

In response, I will permit one of the five greatest American presidents–and a Republican, I might add–to speak for me. These are Theodore Roosevelt’s words, not mine:

The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.

And then, there’s this, by no less than Thomas Jefferson:

God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. … What country before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

Letter to William Stevens Smith (November 13, 1787), quoted in Padover’s Jefferson On Democracy.

Where I sit, there’s really nothing more that needs to be said.

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