Now that the Dahlgren project is winding down, I face the challenge of finding a publisher for the project.

I will finish my third editing pass at the manuscript no later than the middle of next week, and then I will put the revisions into the computer. Once I’ve done that, it’s ready to be circulated to a few chosen friends for review and comment. In other words, it’s getting close to completion.

Before anyone asks, I will answer the question. It’s not an appropriate book for Ironclad because we made a conscious business decision to devote all of our resources to publishing only volumes in our “The Discovering Civil War America Series” (with the exception of two other titles that were already under contract when we made that decision), and a biography of Ulric Dahlgren most assuredly doesn’t fit into the Series. Therefore, Ironclad is not an option.

So, I’m left with the challenge of finding a publisher for this project. As fascinating a young man as Ully Dahlgren was, he died at the age of 21 years, 11 months. He was a colonel, not a general. The story is intriguing, the controversy fascinating, and the saga of what happened to his body after his death tantalizing, but the fact remains that Ully was a minor player in the big scheme of things. That, by definition, means that we’re looking at a limited demand for the book. A limited demand means that placing it with a commercial publishing house will be a challenge at best. Ted Savas has passed on it for that reason, and so have Bruce Franklin of Westholme Publishing and Don McKeon of Potomac Books, formerly known as Brassey’s, and which has published four of my books to date.

It would appear, therefore, that a university press will be where it ends up, in spite of my well-known reservations about university presses. The LSU Press has expressed some interest in the project, and I will give LSU the first shot at it. I sent LSU a query letter, and the acquisitions editor asked to see the manuscript when it’s ready. However, I would really prefer NOT to go with a university press if I can help it for the reasons that I’ve spelled out in the past here. The last book of mine done by LSU took nearly three years to find its way into print, and I really don’t want to have to wait that long for this one.

If anyone has any suggestions for me of other potential commercial publishing houses that might be an appropriate place for my Dahlgren bio, I’m happy to entertain them.

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My first book was published in 1998. It’s titled Gettysburg’s Forgotten Cavalry Actions, and was published by Thomas Publications of Gettysburg. The book won the Bachelder-Coddington Literary Award given each year by the Robert E. Lee Civil War Roundtable of New Jersey as 1998’s best new work interpreting the Battle of Gettysburg.

The book covers Farnsworth’s Charge, Merritt’s fight on South Cavalry Field, and the Battle of Fairfield. It’s short, only about 150 pages, but it’s the first time that anyone ever really tackled these issues in depth. It features excellent maps by John Heiser and lots of photos, including a bunch of modern-day views. The book sells for the very reasonable price of $12.95, as it’s softcover.

Here’s where it came from: I had done an article on South Cavalry Field that was published in Gettysburg Magazine, and one on Fairfield that appeared in America’s Civil War, and I actually was researching Farnsworth’s Charge for another article. My friend Rick Sauers suggested that I should do a book project instead, so I did.

Since I wrote this book, additional sources have surfaced that I would have liked to have been able to include. However, I stand by my conclusions and my analysis, and I think that the book has aged reasonably well. And therein lies the crux of my dilemma.

The book has sold steadily but not spectacularly. To date, it has sold something like 4300 copies–not bad–and there are less than 200 copies left in the inventory at Thomas Publications. Dean Thomas, the publisher, has already told me that when they’re gone, he doesn’t intend to reprint the book and that he will revert my publishing rights to me.

At the same time, J. D. and I plan to write a three-volume history of cavalry operations during the Gettysburg Campaign where I will be able to update the thing and include the additional material, etc. At the same time, it will be a comprehensive study and not a volume devoted to a particular topic.

So, I find myself on the horns of a dilemma. Do I seek out another publisher to keep Gettysburg’s Forgotten Cavalry Actions in print? Or do I let it go out of print and just wait for the multi-volume study to come out? Since it has always sold well, I’m inclined to find another publisher, but that raises yet another dilemma: who?

I welcome input from you, friends. What do you think I ought to do?

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I’ve been plugging away at the third pass at the Dahlgren manuscript steadily for the past few days. I’ve been making good progress–I’ve gotten through six of the thirteen chapters. I’ve been trying to do two chapters per night when I work on it, meaning I’ve worked at it the last three nights solid.

I decided to take tonight off. Once in a while, I just need an evening off. I’ve had an extremely intense last week or so, and I just don’t feel like it tonight. So, I’m just going to spend the evening hanging out.

On another note altogether….

Today, I met a friend for lunch at a nearby upscale Italian restaurant. It’s a very busy place, and it’s also very convenient, as it’s just over a mile from my office.

I got there a couple of minutes early and was seated. As I was being taken to my table, I thought I recognized the person sitting at the first table as I walked back to mine. I got a good look at him, but I wanted to be sure that it was who I thought it was. So I asked the server, and she confirmed that it was, in fact, Eric Clapton sitting at that table.

Slow Hand married a Columbus gal, and has actually lived here for six or seven years. My office is just across the Scioto River from his home. It’s not all that unusual for people to see him around town, but it was the first time I have seen him myself.

I never noticed that he’s left handed–or at least he eats left-handed–before today.

The coolest thing about it was that people left him alone, let him have his space.

Too cool. A David Letterman brush with fame moment. 🙂

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I was going to bore you with my thoughts about how Skippy Bush has so horribly mismanaged things since 9/11, but then I found Keith Olbermann’s rant. Olbermann said it much better than I could ever hope to have done myself, so here are his words, which I wholeheartedly endorse:

Half a lifetime ago, I worked in this now-empty space. And for 40 days after the attacks, I worked here again, trying to make sense of what happened, and was yet to happen, as a reporter.

May this country forgive you.

Olbermann gave this speech at Ground Zero last night, and it appears on the MSNBC web site. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

I’ve now pushed enough of my personal political views on you, so I will move on. Enough said.

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Mark Grimsley posted the lyrics to “The Rising,” Bruce Springsteen’s brilliant tribute to the firefighters who died at the World Trade Center, on his blog today, with an image of a grieving firefighter sitting by the rubble of collapsed Twin Towers, being comforted by two angels. It was a simple but incredibly eloquent and moving way to remember those who gave their lives in the hope of that others might live. They don’t call New York’s firefighters “The Bravest” for no reason.

We should not–no, cannot–ever forget what happened on September 11, 2001. The world as we know it changed forever that day. And thousands of normal people who were just going about their daily routines lost their lives as a consequence.

I spent the night of September 10, 2001 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. I spoke to the Rappahannock Valley Civil War Roundtable on the Battle of Tom’s Brook that evening. I’d been on the road for a few days–I’d spoken to a Roundtable in Pinehurst, NC, and then had a few days of battlefield stompling. I was scheduled to go home on the morning of 9/11.

My plan was to take I-95 to 395, go past the Pentagon, pick up the George Washington Parkway, cut the corner, take it to the Beltway, follow the Beltway to 270, take 270 to Frederick, and then pick up I-70 at Frederick. My house sits about a mile north of I-70 here in Columbus, so it’s pretty much a straight shot on 70. If all had gone according to the original schedule, I would have passed by the Pentagon at just about the precise moment that the American Airlines plane slammed into it.

However, at that time, I was in the process of finalizing my arrangements with the dean of American Military University, who asked me to stop by the office to meet me on the morning of 9/11. So, I drove up to Manassas from Fredericksburg to meet with the dean.

I called Susan on my cell as I was driving. The first plane crashed into the World Trade Center while we were talking, and we were still on the phone when the second one also hit. She was watching it all unfold on the Today show, and she described the events to me as they occurred. AMU’s offices are right next to the Prince George’s County airport, and by the time I got out of my meeting, the Pentagon had been hit and United 93 was down. When I walked out of the meeting, there were armed guards everywhere around the entrances to the airport, wearing camouflage fatigues and toting automatic weapons. It was a chilling sight, to say the least.

I quickly realized that my original route wouldn’t be a good possibility. I also heard that due to the crash of United 93, the Pennsylvania Turnpike was closed, and that was my normal route. I had to find a new route.

I decided that the best bet was to take I-66 to its terminus in Front Royal, pick up I-81, take it north to Hagerstown, and pick up I-70 there. I would take 70 to Hancock and then get I-68, which goes through the mountains of western Maryland and West Virginia. I-68 ends in Morgantown, WV, where I would pick up I-79, take it to Washington, PA, get I-70 there, and finally make my way home. And that’s what I did.

As I was driving west on I-66, I was in the left lane at one point. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw a convoy of black Chevy Suburbans with red and blue lights coming up behind at a very high rate of speed, so I pulled over to let them go by. By then, they were already saying that Cheney had been taken to some undisclosed safe location, and I couldn’t help but wonder whether these vehicles had something to do with that (I subsequently learned where that “undisclosed location” is, and it’s not likely that they had anything to do with it). They whizzed by me like I was standing still.

I have to admit that I was glad that I took such a long and roundabout route to get home. I felt safer going through the West Virginia mountains, figuring that I would be safe out in the middle of nowhere. What was really strange was not seeing any aircraft in the sky. I was listening to NPR all day, so I knew as much as anyone did, but I hadn’t seen any of the horrifying but now familiar video. I also couldn’t reach Susan on the cell phone because the cellular telephone system was in bad shape from the combination of losing cells in New York and from its being horribly overloaded.

I finally crossed into Ohio about 5 PM. I stopped to use the bathroom at a rest stop, briefly asking the Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper how he was doing. When I came out, I looked up in the sky and saw a single large plane surrounded by multiple fighters and knew that it could only be Air Force One. Now, I am no fan of the current occupant of the White House–I think that he stole the 2000 election and took office without having being elected and my opinion of him has only gone down by leaps and bounds since then–but I have to admit that I was glad to see him that day. It gave me a small measure of comfort.

I finally got home about 7:00 that evening. It had been a long and brutal day, and I finally saw the horrific videos I’d heard about all day. I just wanted to crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head.

Susan’s cousin was on the 22nd floor of the South Tower when it was hit. If she hadn’t been in a meeting there, she would have been dead, as her office was on the floor that was hit. Or there was my friend Mark’s sister, Jennifer. Jenn had just gotten off the train from New Jersey and was cutting across the plaza at the WTC to catch the subway, completely unaware of what had happened–she was underground when the plane hit–and was yanked out of the way by an alert policeman, or else Jenn would have been hit by the body of someone who jumped from one of the floors above the conflagration. To this day, nobody knows whether that nameless but nevertheless heroic policeman survived. My friend Jim Nolan–a lifelong New Yorker–saw the whole thing from his office window in mid-town Manhattan and then had to walk home to Queens. “Look what they’ve done to my city,” he thought.

Indeed. Look what they’ve done to our world. It will never be the same again. I will save my rant against the present administration for tomorrow before leaving the topic for good. Tonight, it’s not appropriate.

We can never forget the firefighters, the policemen, and the employees of the firms headquartered in the WTC. We can never forget the civilians and the soldiers and sailors of the Pentagon who gave their lives. We can never forget Kevin Levin’s cousin Alisha Levin, who died at the WTC. We can never forget the flight crews of the airliners that crashed, or the innocent passengers who filled those planes. We can never forget the heroic men and women of United 93 who saved the White House or the Capitol from a horrendous fate. And we can never forget the people who lost loved ones in these tragic events.

For a brief, shining moment, as we poured out our grief, we Americans permitted the better angels of our nature to shine through. Instead of partisan politics, for once, we united and came together. The generosity of people in this time of crisis was staggering (just as it was in the wake of Katrina). It’s really a tragedy that we need a disaster of nearly unprecedented scale to bring us together, but it seems to be the case.

We must never forget. For those who fail to learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them.

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Having grown up in the Philadelphia suburbs, I am a life-long, die-hard, long-suffering Philadelphia Eagles fan. The Eagles won their last NFL championship in 1960, about 90 days before I was born. They have not won one in my lifetime, although they have lost in the Super Bowl twice, 1981 and 2005.

I’m wearing my Donovan McNabb jersey as I write this. I’m always really excited at the beginning of the season, and I pay for the NFL Sunday ticket package on DirecTV so that I can watch every game. I spent the afternoon watching the Eagles beat the Houston Texans 24-10 today. McNabb is healthy again, and their new wideout, Donte Stallworth, made a large and immediate impact today.

Once again, I’m optimistic for the chances of my Eagles, although they will, undoubtedly, end up breaking my heart again, just as they do every year. For now, though, I’m going to enjoy it for as long as it lasts.

And let’s hope that Terrell Owens pulls his hamstring again, and that he misses most, if not all, of the season. I hate Dallas as much as I hate the New York Yankees, and now that Owens is there, it gives me all that much more reason to hate them intensely.

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This afternoon, JD and I got an e-mail from Ted Savas letting us know that the first printing of our book is completely sold out, one week after the books shipped from the printer. What’s more is that Ted told me that he has a very substantial lot of backorders pending, too. He’s going to be ordering a second printing of the book next week.

JD and I both had a pretty good idea that this book was going to sell well, but it’s done better than either of us could possibly have hoped.

There will be a difference between the first printing and all subsequent ones. For some reason, the same photograph of Alfred Pleasonton appears twice in the first printing. Somehow, it slipped by all of us until I noticed it the other night flipping pages. The second printing and any subsequent printings will have a different image where the Pleasonton photo appears the second time. All of us were amazed that it got by Ted, J.D., me, and Lee Merideth, the indexer. It just goes to show you that things sometimes get through, no matter how hard we try to catch everything.

I’m just blown away by the reaction that this book is receiving and with how well it’s doing. Thank you to each and every one of you who has made this happen.

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I continue to plug away at editing/revising the working draft of the Dahlgren biography. I have now completed two full passes at the manuscript. I have one pass left to go before finishing this phase of the editing/rewrite process. I have added a couple of paragraphs so far, and I’ve cleaned up nearly all of the unwanted and excessive use of the passive voice.

I’ve also continued to tweak and modify the discussion of what Lincoln may or may not have known about the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid. I added a whole paragraph to it tonight. Reader Pete Vermilyea made an excellent point in an e-mail to me about this topic that makes a lot of sense. So much sense, in fact, that I added a paragraph. The gist of Pete’s point–and the gist of what I added tonight–is that Grant’s promotion to lieutenant general was approved by the Senate on March 2, 1864, the very day that Ully Dahlgren died. Given that Grant’s promotion was in the works when the raid was ordered, and given that Grant was promoted in order to permit him to assume command of the all of the armies of the United States of America, it does not make a great deal of sense for Stanton to have been closely involved in the plans spelled out in the Dahlgren Papers. Why would Stanton have ordered something that would have created absolute chaos just as Grant–the Lincoln Administration’s chosen savior–was assuming command? As Pete quite correctly points out, this defies logic. It certainly is a powerful argument against the involvement of either Lincoln or Stanton.

Thanks very much to Pete Vermilyea for bringing this fascinating point to my attention. I’m glad he did, as I hadn’t even considered the timing of Grant’s promotion vis-a-vis the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid.

Next up: Begin the third pass at the manuscript. When I’m finished with that, I will take my handwritten notes and enter the revisions into the computer. Once that process is completed, I will then forward the manuscript to my select group of readers who are kind enough to donate their time and effort to reviewing my work for me. When I get their comments and incorporate their revisions, I then make a final pass at the manuscript, and then it’s done.

I’m making good progress, and will continue to do so.

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If you will indulge me in a little shameless self-promotion for a moment….

I’m pleased to announce the release of Plenty of Blame to Go Around: Jeb Stuart’s Controversial Ride to Gettysburg, published by Savas-Beatie Publishing, and written by J. D. Petruzzi and me. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s out. When I got home from work tonight, there were sufficient boxes on my side porch for a couple of hundred copies. If I’ve got them, that means that the orders received by Amazon, Savas-Beatie, etc., are ready to be filled.

J. D. and I are also proud to announce the launch of our new web site, devoted to this book. Please visit.

It’s still a thrill every time that I see one of my books for the first time, and I’m especially proud of this one.

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A number of months ago, I told all of you that Susan and I had broken ground on a new house, at least in part because we have nowhere else to go with books in our present house. The new house is nearly finished, and should be finished within four weeks. They’re doing the trim work now.

Two major problems have arisen. First, Susan’s hours were cut in half for a number of months earlier this year, which made financing the new house an issue. Second is my new job. Had I stayed at the old firm, I would have had about a 20 mile drive to work each day, give or take. However, the new firm is a lot farther away. As it sits now, I have a 25 mile drive each way to get to work, which takes a good 45 minutes each way. If we were to move to new house, my drive would increase to 40-45 miles each way, which is just not acceptable. I am unwilling to spend more than two hours per day driving. So, we’ve decided to put the house up for sale as soon as we close on it. It’s 3100 square feet with two bonus rooms on three-quarters of an acre, so it should move quickly. We can’t start looking for something in earnest that’s closer to my office until this situation gets resolved.

That means that we’re stuck here for the time being. We’re still completely out of space for books, and the problem is, if anything, now worse than before. Books are piling up on the floor in my office because there simply is no more shelf space for them. I hate doing that, and it looks awful to see piles of books all over the floor. Our basement tends to have dampness issues, so it’s not an option. There simply is nowhere else to put any more bookcases here.

So, the primary problem remains. We will still have to move in order to accommodate our library. It just means that we will be moving in another direction. And, for the time being, my library will continue to overflow.

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