From Associated Content:

A series of Islamic cartoons lampooning the prophet Muhammad have been declined for publication by Yale University Press. The Ivy League school initially planned to include them in a book about how the cartoons incited violence from Muslim fanatics against the original publishers of the cartoons, which included one in a Danish newspaper four years ago.

Yale intended for the book and the inclusion of the cartoons to stimulate intellectual debate on why Muslims would be outraged by the depictions of their prophet. In Sunni Islam, orthodox sharia forbids the portrayal of Muhammad or other human or animal figures, while Shi’ite Islam allows the depiction of humans. There are several Persian paintings that exist that in fact portray Muhammad, such as the “Muhammad Received by the Four Archangels” one painted in 1436. Of course, there is next to no criticism from most Muslims against these paintings, if they know of their existence. Islam believes the first commandment sets the precedence for their law, which forbids the making of images to be worshiped. There is nothing in the first commandment in Judeo-Christian law that forbids the making of images for decoration, such as paintings and other artwork.

Criticism of Yale’s withdrawal of these cartoons being published are out of fear, versus respect for Islam. It is entirely possible to write and publish a book without using the actual cartoons in the book, and merely describing them and the consequences of the publication from the Islamic community. Only Islamic extremists are opposed to these cartoons plus other images which represent Muhammad. Mainstream and lapsed Muslims do not give too much attention to such matters, especially is they are comfortable and secure with their faith in Islam.

Yale alumnus Michael Steinberg accuses Yale of intellectual dishonesty in making the decision to withdraw the cartoons from the book, claiming that all the motion does it appease Islamic extremists. While such a motion may be of more concern in a nation like Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, the publication of the book is taking place here in the United States, written by American intellectuals, not by Muslims who might be perceived as having an ax to grind, as Salman Rushdie was when he wrote and published “The Satanic Verses.” The only one at fault is Yale University itself, for having consulted with the wrong people when the school’s publishing sector asked for aid and research on the subject. Asking counter-terrorism experts, diplomats, and the Muslim official at the U.N. are probably not the best sources in acquiring information about publishing the cartoons in question, especially when Yale knew the responses would be biased heavily in favor of Islam. Yale is located in a nation where the freedom of speech is highly valued, not self censorship out of fear for what terrorists might do when the book containing the cartoons is published. Yale University Press has the final say in what they want to publish in the book on Islamic terrorism and its reaction to images of Muhammad in the western world.

Spineless wimpiness in the name of political correctness is not a good trend, especially among publishers. Normally, I avoid contemporary politics in this blog, but I feel compelled to speak out about this example of political correctness run amok.

By removing these cartoons from a scholarly discussion, the operators of the Yale University Press have permitted political Islam, and all of its ugly implications, to dictate policy. The moment we allow political Islam to dictate how we do things in this country, we’re finished as a society. Yale never should have done this, and I encourage all publishers to reject this as a policy.

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in case any of my readers are in the Cleveland area and have an interest, I am speaking to the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable on Wednesday evening. The Cleveland CWRT meets at a place called Judson Manor, which is located near the Cleveland Clinic at the corner of East 107th Avenue and Chester Avenue. The social hour and meal begin at 6:00, and I believe that I go on at 7:00. Advance reservations are required, so please be sure to make a reservation if you intend to come hear my talk, which will be based on my book Plenty of Blame to Go Around: Jeb Stuart’s Controversial Ride to Gettysburg.

If any readers make it to the talk, please be sure to come and introduce yourself to me.

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From CNET on September 2:

Amazon came out swinging Tuesday against Google’s proposed settlement with book authors and publishers.

Amazon’s opposition was made public last week when it joined the Open Book Alliance, but the company filed its own brief with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Tuesday arguing against making the proposed settlement final. In its filing (click for PDF), Amazon notes that it has also scanned books, but has not taken the controversial step that Google took in scanning out-of-print but copyright-protected books without explicit permission.

Way back in 2004, when Google began scanning books from libraries, it believed it had the right to scan the entire text of a copyright-protected book under fair-use laws so long as it only displayed a snippet of the contents. Authors groups and publishers vehemently disagreed, resulting in a class-action lawsuit and the proposed settlement at issue in this case.
Lawyers for Amazon wrote “Amazon also brings a unique perspective to this court because it has engaged in a book scanning project very similar to Google’s, with one major distinction: As to books still subject to copyright protection, Amazon has only scanned those for which it could obtain permission to do so from the copyright holder.”

The brief goes on to complain that the settlement “is unfair to authors, publishers, and others whose works would be the subject of a compulsory license for the life of the copyright in favor of Google and the newly created Book Rights Registry.” Amazon wants Congress to intervene in the dispute over fair-use provisions in copyright laws, saying the use of a class-action settlement to obtain these rights “represents an unprecedented rewriting of copyright law through judicial action.”

Amazon, of course, has a lot at stake when it comes to the future of books. One of the largest sellers of regular books in the world, Amazon has also turned its attention to the digital book market with the release of the Kindle and a digital book store of its own.

Google has supporters in its fight to get the settlement approved during an early October fairness hearing before Judge Denny Chin. Sony, the American Association for People with Disabilities, the European Commission, and several others have filed briefs of support with the court. And on Tuesday, U.K. publisher Coolerbooks agreed to join Google’s Partner Program, allowing it to offer Google’s scanned copies of public domain works not at issue in the settlement.

Updated 2:52 p.m. PDT: Google plans to hold a press conference tomorrow morning with settlement supporters from civil rights groups and advocates for people with disabilities, which we’ll cover.

And three library groups reiterated Wednesday that while they do not oppose the settlement they wish to ensure “vigorous oversight” is enforced by the court.

But judging by the court docket, the opposition is out-filing supporters. Those interested in flooding Judge Chin with additional reading material have until Friday to do so.

I really hope that the Judge does not approve this settlement. It’s bad for EVERYONE but Google.

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Recently, the newsletter of the Old Baldy Civil War Roundtable of Philadelphia published the results of an update poll as to the 50 greatest books on the Civil War of all time, and J.D.’s and my book Plenty of Blame to Go Around: Jeb Stuart’s Controversial Ride to Gettysburg made the list! We’re in some very elite company, and it is both humbling and flattering to make a list like that. I’m also pleased to see Jim Morgan’s A Little Short of Boats: The Fights at Ball’s Bluff and Edwards Ferry make the list; we published that book at Ironclad, and I was the one who persuaded Jim to write it. Given that thousands of books have been published on the war, to make the top 50 is an incredible honor.

Here’s the list:

1. The Civil War: A Narrative – Shelby Foote
2. Battle Cry of Freedom – James McPherson
3. Killer Angels – Michael Shaara
4. Lee’s Lieutenants – Douglas Freeman
5. Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Soldier, The Legend – James Robertson
6. The Gettysburg Campaign – Edwin B. Coddington
7. Co. Aytch – Sam Watkins
8. A Stillness at Appomattox – Bruce Catton
9. Confederacy’s Last Hurrah/Embrace an Angry Wind – Wiley Sword
10. Fighting for the Confederacy – E. Porter Alexander
11. Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam – Stephen W. Sears
12. Gettysburg – Stephen W. Sears
13. American Brutus – Michael Kauffman
14. Gettysburg: The Second Day – Harry W. Pfanz
15. Generals in Blue – Ezra J. Warner
16. Gettysburg: A Journey in Time – William A. Frassanito
17. Team of Rivals – Doris Kearns Goodwin
18. A Little Short Of Boats: The Fights at Ball’s Bluff and Edward’s Ferry – James A. Morgan, III
19. Centennial History of the Civil War – Bruce Catton
20. Harvard’s Civil War: The History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry – Richard Miller
21. Mosby’s Rangers – Jeffry D. Wert
22. The Golden Book of the Civil War – American Heritage
23. Confederates in the Attic – Tony Horwitz
24. April 1865: The Month That Saved America – Jay Winik
25. This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga – Peter Cozzens
26. Taken at the Flood: Robert E. Lee and Confederate Strategy in the Maryland Campaign of 1862 – Joseph Harsh
27. Nothing but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee, 1861-1865 – Steven E. Woodworth
28. The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy – Bell Irvin Wiley
29. The Civil War Dictionary – Mark Boatner
30. Robert E. Lee – Douglas Southall Freeman
31. Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years & the War Years – Carl Sandberg
32. The Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane
33. The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion – Participants
34. Antietam: The Soldiers’ Battle – John Michael Priest
35. The Class of 1846: From West Point to Appomattox – John C. Waugh
36. Stealing the General: The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor – Russell S. Bonds
37. Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West – Shea & Hess
38. Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant – Ulysses S. Grant
39. Hardtack & Coffee – John Billings
40. The Guns of Gettysburg – Fairfax Downey
41. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
42. Warrior Generals – Thomas Buell
43. Generals in Gray – Ezra J. Warner
44. Battles & Leaders of the Civil War – Various
45. Return to Bull Run: The Campaign and Battle of Second Manassas – John Hennessy
46. The Secret War for the Union – Edwin C. Fishel
47. Three Years in the Army of the Cumberland – James Connolly
48. Retreat from Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics, and the Pennsylvania Campaign – Kent Masterson Brown
49. Last Full Measure – Jeff Shaara
50. Plenty of Blame to Go Around: Jeb Stuart’s Controversial Ride to Gettysburg – Eric J. Wittenberg & J. David Petruzzi

I can’t fathom how a couple of these books would make such a list, such as the horrible dreck that Jeff Shaara churns out (I couldn’t even bring myself to finish that awful book), or how Gone With the Wind qualifies, but so be it. I am nevertheless greatly honored and greatly humbled all at the same time to be considered in such elite company as the rest of the list, and I thank everyone who voted for us.

Thanks to Tom Ryan of Bethany Beach, Delaware for bringing this to my attention.

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The first Battle of Middleburg occurred late in the day on June 17, 1863. Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, the acting commander of the Army of the Potomac’s Cavalry Corps, was known to be a terrible xenophobe. He felt that foreigners had no place in the American Civil War, and he didn’t trust any of them. Once he took command of the Cavalry Corps, he took steps to purge his command of all foreign-born officers. One of his prime targets was Col. Alfred N. Duffie of the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry.

Duffie, a Frenchman of questionable military lineage, had briefly commanded a division before a reorganization and poor performance caused him to be demoted to regimental command. Pleasonton sent Duffie’s regiment, the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry, on a mission far behind enemy lines to find out whether there were any enemy in the town of Middleburg. This small but fine regiment got chopped to bits when it got there, unexpectedly finding Brig. Gen. Beverly H. Robertson’s large but green brigade of North Carolina cavalry there. The Tar Heels chopped Duffie’s regiment to shreds, and only a handful of men avoided capture. Not surprisingly, they lost their regimental flag, which was, for years, part of the collection of the North Carolina Museum of History.

In his blog post today, Michael C. Hardy shared this interesting piece of news:

The North Carolina Museum of History has returned a Civil War flag of Company L, First Rhode Island Cavalry to its home state. The V-shaped flag, called a guidon, was captured by the 63rd North Carolina Troops (Fifth North Carolina Cavalry) on June 17, 1863, during the Battle of Middleburg, Virginia. The battle was part of the Gettysburg campaign, a series of battles in June to July during Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s movement through Virginia toward Pennsylvania.

The silk, striped guidon of Company L, with stars and letters on a field of blue, was donated to the Museum of History in the early 1900s. The gold-fringed banner has been fully restored by the museum and has appeared in previous exhibits.

In a gesture of goodwill, the Museum of History initiated the offer to return the flag to the State of Rhode Island. In 2008 the Rhode Island National Guard accepted the gift from North Carolina.

“The Rhode Island National Guard is thankful to the North Carolina Museum of History staff for graciously returning a Rhode Island Civil War guidon,” says Maj. Gen. Robert T. Bray, Adjutant General and Commanding General of the Rhode Island National Guard. “We are delighted to display the banner, especially given its pristine condition as a result of the careful preservation provided by the museum, among the many historical artifacts at the Varnum Armory in East Greenwich.”

The Museum of History hopes the State of Rhode Island will return a North Carolina flag captured by Rhode Island soldiers at New Bern on March 14, 1862. “We would like this Confederate flag, along with ones held by other states, to eventually be returned to North Carolina,” says Tom Belton, curator of military history.

In addition to the Rhode Island guidon, the Museum of History has given back a Civil War flag to Louisiana. The banner was mistakenly identified as being associated with North Carolina. Within the last few years, the Museum of History has received North Carolina flags from Arkansas and Massachusetts to add to its collection.

The Museum of History boasts the third-largest Confederate flag collection in the world. All banners in the collection were carried by Tar Heel troops. The museum is currently engaged in an extensive flag conservation program in anticipation of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War; commemorative events will take place from 2011 to 2015.Company L, First Rhode Island Cavalry at the Battle of Middleburg

Company L, First Rhode Island Cavalry suffered devastating losses during the Battle of Middleburg. On June 17 Union Col. Alfred N. Duffié led more than 230 men into Middleburg around 4 p.m. After hearing of their arrival, Confederate Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart ordered Brig. Gen. Beverly Robertson to move the Fifth North Carolina Cavalry in, and at 7 p.m. the regiment surrounded and attacked the Rhode Island unit. Several of Duffié’s men were killed or wounded, and the rest were driven out of town and fought their way through the night.

Most of Company L’s soldiers were captured the next morning. Only four of Duffié’s officers and 27 soldiers made it back to Centreville on June 18. A few more men from Company L returned during the next two days, but the regiment’s losses were about 200.

For more information, call 919-807-7900 or access ncmuseumofhistory.org. The Museum of History is located at 5 E. Edenton St., across from the State Capitol.

I’m pleased that this flag has been returned to Rhode Island where it belongs–it’s a generous and worthy gesture by North Carolina to do so. Thanks to Michael Hardy for sharing this good news with me.

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Today, the CWPT issued the following press release, announcing yet another preservation victory:

Dear Friend,

Just as I was able to write to you recently about our triumph in saving 643 acres at Davis Bridge, Tennessee, I now have the privilege to let you know that CWPT has successfully raised our portion of the matching grant to help save 178 absolutely key acres at Port Republic, Virginia!

Partnering with the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation (SVBF), we are helping to buy the development rights and preserve forever 178 acres at Stonewall Jackson’s final battle of the 1862 Valley Campaign.

Of the total $420,000 cost, the SVBF is putting in $140,000 of the price, the Commonwealth of Virginia is putting in $140,000, and we have applied for an additional federal grant of $98,000…meaning CWPT’s final $42,000 has sealed the deal. This is a $10-to-$1 match of your donation dollar.

Good economy…bad economy…ANY economy…this was a great opportunity to save significant land at a vitally important battlefield. I hope you agree.

I also hope that you will take a look at the other on-going preservation fights we are engaged in, and will help to the extent you can, so we can achieve even more victories! Thank you for your tremendous dedication, incredible support and wonderful generosity.

Sincerely yours,

Jim Lighthizer
President

I’ve never been particularly interested in Jackson’s Valley Campaign for a variety of reasons, but I’m always thrilled when important battlefield land is preserved. Whoever put this particular deal together did a great job of finding government grant money for the bulk of the purchase, which is the best way to do these deals.

Once again, kudos to Jim Lighthizer and his excellent staff for their good work. Keep it up, guys.

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Yesterday, reader Phil LeDuc left me the following comment on my post about our ongoing library project:

The space-for-books problem is kind of like taxes (and death I guess), isn’t it? You can defer it for a while, but inexorably it gets you in the end. I’ve got the same situation.

On a related note Eric, have you catalogued your collection at all? Whether manually or using a software program or similar means?

It’s something I think I need to do for insurance and other purposes, and I’d be interested to hear from you and your readers on this subject. I’d like to find something that’s user-friendly and can produce reports that can be sorted by subject or title or author, and which then can be printed.

Thanks and good luck.

Thanks for writing Phil. The answer is that I have not catalogued my books to date. I usually operate from memory when buying books, which works reasonably well. I only buy duplicates once in a blue moon. However, your point about insurance is well-taken, and my books really should be better covered than what they are.

Susan actually came up with the idea of completely cataloguing our library, and Susan being Susan, she did a great deal of research while searching for an appropriate piece of software to use. She has a large collection of her own, so she has started with her books.

She located a piece of software called Bookpedia. Bookpedia has a lot of really useful functions. If you have a webcam attached to your computer (there’s one built into this laptop), you can use it to scan the barcode for the ISBN, and it then finds the book in its online database. It will store the book by genre, author, title–however you want it to catalogue them. She has found it very easy to use, and I commend it to you.

When she finishes her library, which will occur shortly, she has offered to start on mine. With a couple of thousand books in my library, it’s going to take a while. Also, I have a complete set of the reprints of the OR’s, all 128 volumes of them, and they obviously don’t have ISBN’s. The same goes for my first edition regimentals and some of the replica reprints that I’ve collected from Ward House Books. I’m not sure how we’re going to handle that, but we will figure it out.

Thanks for asking, Phil.

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From today’s edition of the on-line version of the Culpeper Star-Exponent newspaper:

Watching history march by

JEFF SAY, JSAY@STAREXPONENT.COM , (540) 825-0771 EXT. 115
Published: August 31, 2009

BRANDY STATION
Behind a winding country road sits a historic house.Many would never give the little sign off Carrico’s Mills Road a second glance, and that would be a mistake. Because if you follow that road far enough, you will find a home that witnessed thousands of Union and Confederate troops marching along its property.

Very few members of the public have had an opportunity to tour Berry Hill Farm, which sits close to Stoney Ford, on Mountain Run, one of the most heavily traversed fords in the county.

Thanks to the Brandy Station Foundation’s 20th anniversary fall celebration, the public will have an opportunity to tour the home, owned by Geraldine Schneider and her late husband Jorge.

The celebration, slated for Sept. 13 from 1 to 4 p.m., will give a glimpse at the home and its surroundings while offering a speech from award-winning Civil War historian and author Eric J. Wittenberg.

The centerpiece of the celebration, however, will be the opportunity to receive a tour of the house, courtesy Mrs. Schneider.

History of the home
Alexander Thom settled the property in 1762 when he bought 300 acres from Tom Slaughter.

After his death, his son John Triplett Thom bought the property next door, already named Berry Hill, which added 1,200 acres. The home was a grand Georgian house of large proportions, sitting on a ridge with commanding views of the mountains.

By the time of the Civil War, the house had been abandoned and was left in a ruinous, neglected state.

It became a headquarters in 1862 for Confederate Gen. Dick Ewell, though both sides camped on the property at different times.

“I can’t emphasize how historic the house is,” Brandy Station Foundation board member and noted historian Clark “Bud” Hall said. “There is a real tactical significance to Berry Hill. After all, Stoney Ford, the most heavily traveled military ford on Mountain Run, is practically in the front yard of this house.”

Like many homes in Culpeper County, Berry Hill was a victim of war, as Federal troops were ordered to burn it to the ground in December 1863.

“They literally carried straw into the house, the Union army did,” BSF board member Helen Geisler said. Only the foundation stones were left.

According to the book “My Dear Brother” by Catherine Thom Bartlett, granddaughter of Pembroke Thom, the stones were carted off to build chimneys and other structures for the Union encampment.

In March 1864, William Ross purchased the property and rebuilt the home in 1865.

“The house does justice to its historic setting simply because it’s situated precisely upon its historic footprint,” Hall said.

The home changed hands several times before the Schneiders bought it 59 years ago.

Sharing history
The Schneiders were living in New York City in 1950, but were looking for a home for Geraldine’s mother, originally from Georgia.

Because of her husband’s work as an engineer for the Brazilian government, they didn’t want to find a home in Georgia because it would be too far away to visit on a frequent basis. So, Virginia was decided on by compromise.

Geraldine found the property at Brandy Station, almost by accident, simply by browsing the real estate section of the New York Times.

She remembers her first encounter with the property being an adventure.

“There wasn’t any road to get directly to the house,” Schneider said. “There was a road from Route 675 that came from Curtis’, but that was a right of way. I had to get out of the car and walk all the way up to here.”

When they made it to the house, they found it in disrepair. The paint was chipping, the mantles, doors and door moldings were all stored in the barn.

With a little love and a skilled carpenter’s help, the Schneiders restored the home to its past brilliance.

Before moving in, the Schneiders were unaware of the history attached to Berry Hill. But as they grew acclimated to the community, it was hard not to realize its importance.

“You can’t avoid it in Culpeper history,” Schneider said. “We enjoyed doing things with the museum. We became involved, and then we began to receive visitors.

“One distant relative came from California, the woman who wrote ‘My Dear Brother.’ She came several times, she wrote the book, and we ordered several copies of it. That started mother and I off. We traveled into town and tried to trace the history back. The one book, the one we really wanted, back to the 1700s was carried off by the Northern soldiers as souvenirs.”

The home is full of stories for Schneider and her family. She points to the cottage next to the nearly 200-year-old barn and tells of its creation.

“The Catholic Charities were brining people over from Europe after the war, and were looking for homes for them to stay,” Schneider recalled. “At that time we weren’t using the downstairs and my mother was staying here.”

Wanting to keep her mother company while she and her husband were away, the Schneiders housed a man and his family in the cellar.

“He said, ‘Mrs. Schneider, I was sent to Siberia and we had to build our own houses,’” she remembered. “‘If you let me cut some trees, I can build something here.’ Oh, my husband was delighted. He got a sawmill for him. He chose his trees, cut them into boards. We went over to Mr. Prince’s on the other side of Alanthus (Road), and that’s the log cabin over by the barn.”

In the 1900s the farm was the home to Berry Hill Dyspepsia Water, advertised as “for dyspepsia, indigestion, constipation and all forms of stomach disorders. Remedy of great merit for kidney diseases, acid, diathesis, stone, gravel, rheumatism, and dropsical affections.”

The spring from which the water came is still on the property, but is now only used as a conversation piece for visitors.

The Schneiders first decided to share their home with visitors after joining the Culpeper Historic Society years ago, but were away for several years before returning permanently about two years ago.

Since then, more people have come asking to see the home, prompting her to allow it be opened for the BSF fall celebration.

“I thought, I don’t mind sharing what I’ve been enjoying all my life,” Schneider said.

Celebrating 20 years
The fall celebration also serves as an opportunity for the board to honor all of its members for 20 years of service to the battlefield.

Geisler said 66 members have been invited to attend, and they will receive a special recognition at the luncheon.

Wittenberg’s speech will likely be a highlight for those attending, but just being invited was a highlight for the writer, Hall said.

“He’s a terrific cavalry scholar,” Hall said. “He’s written prolifically on cavalry actions during the Civil War. He’s a close personal friend, and I called him and told him to get his rear out here from Ohio.

“He views this particular invitation as one of the crowning achievements of his career.”

For the volunteers of the Brandy Station Foundation, making 20 years as an organization has to be a crowning achievement as well.

Hall recalled the early days and how the BSF was looked upon as “outsiders trying to stop development.” Now, they are seen as responsible neighbors.

“The important thing about battlefield preservation is that this is community service at its least selfish,” Hall said. “People come forth, give of their own time and resources to aid the cause of America’s greatest cavalry battlefield. This is the most generous token of human kindness that can be considered.

“That is important. No one gets paid here. And, it takes real human courage to serve in a then-unpopular but just cause.”

This just cause has helped save hundreds of acres of pristine battlefield, and has given the foundation a chance to showcase wonderful pieces of living history like Berry Hill.

“Not a lot of people have visited this house because of its remote location,” Hall said. “This is an opportunity to see one of Culpeper’s most historic homes that most people in this county have not seen.”

Want to go?
What: Brandy Station Foundation’s 20th anniversary fall
celebration
When: Sept. 13, 1 to 4 p.m.
Where: Berry Hill Farm, 22544 Carrico Mills Road, Brandy Station
RSVP: Reservations must be received by Sept. 6. Call Helen Geisler at 399-1637 or e-mail director@brandystationfoundation.com .
Directions: From Culpeper, on U.S. 29 at Brandy Station light, turn right onto Ailanthus Road, go left at the stop sign and follow the road to the right as it crosses the railroad tracks. Continue straight, as you are now on Carrico Mills Road. Travel 2.8 miles to a stone-pillared driveway marked Berry Hill Farm Drive. Be aware, it is a long driveway.

Original member of BSF recalls struggles
It’s hard for Clark “Bud” Hall to believe it’s been 20 years since the Brandy Station Foundation was formed.

Hall, a driving force behind the genesis of the local battlefield preservation group, recently recalled some of the struggles endured in those early years.

In the mid-1980s, Hall moved to Virginia while working for the FBI. Immensely interested in the tactical strategies of the Civil War, he was drawn to Brandy Station in an attempt to understand the movements of JEB Stuart’s cavalry division on June 9, 1863.

Through the courtesy of generous landowners, Hall was welcomed onto their property, where he was in awe of the vast scope of the huge and magnificent battlefield.

“It became clear to me that heretofore the battlefield had never been properly documented,” Hall said. “It had never been mapped. There were accounts written about the battle of Brandy Station, but none were at the tactical level.”

A Marine infantryman in the Vietnam War, Hall was familiar with terrain, specifically how it affects leadership. His original plan was simply to visit the battlefield and put together a photographic narrative of the battle.

Fate soon intervened.

While visiting the farms of Bob Button, Fred Gordon, Whitney Pound, Aubrey Foster, Bill Spillman Cita Ward, the Strauss family and many others, Hall became aware that the battlefield was dangerously exposed to development.

“That shocked me as a first-time visitor to Brandy Station, that none of the battlefield was protected,” Hall said.

Geographically and numerically, the largest battlefield in America, Brandy Station was in for yet another skirmish.

Battling development
At the time, Hall was a board member of the Association of the Preservation of Civil War Sites, now the Civil War Preservation Trust.

In the late 1980s, developer Lee Sammis from California secured several farms, encompassing nearly 5,000 acres of critical battlefield land.

Alarmed that the Brandy Station battlefield might be lost, Hall suggested to APCWS that a local group be formed to help preserve the land.

The board agreed, and put Hall in charge of helping to form the organization. A wide array of supporters was quickly assembled — preservation lawyers, landowners, neighbors, teachers and housewives all sat on the original Brandy Station Foundation board.

Culpeper County rezoned the land for an industrial office park, which sparked the foundation into action. They subsequently filed a lawsuit against the county and Sammis for the violation of the county’s comprehensive plan.

“People ask me today, ‘Did we do the right thing in filing lawsuits?’” Hall said. “Well, nobody likes litigation, least of all me, but the battlefield is still there and still undeveloped.”

While fighting the development, the foundation got the reputation of being anti-job, of being outsiders.

“And all we were trying to do was to save principal areas of the battlefield where the fighting occurred,” Hall said.

Sammis then went into bankruptcy. However, another developer, James Lazor, came into the picture. A portion of the land Sammis owned was sold to Lazor, who planned a Formula 1 racetrack on the battlefield.

“I was explaining the battlefield to him (Lazor), just he and I,” Hall recalled. “I said ‘Right here where you want to put your concession stands, is where the commanding general of the federal cavalry stood directing his troops in the low ground beneath us, where you want to build your track.’

“I said, ‘The race-track plan you have slated for this land is completely inappropriate.’ He turned to me and said, ‘You might not like it, but I’m going to build my racetrack here.’

“I turned to him and responded, ‘I’ll take that action; you’ll never build your racetrack here.’ And he never did.”

After Lazor’s initiative folded, the AWCPS bought that land.

Twenty years later, how did the BSF succeed in its mission of saving the battlefield?

“George Washington was once asked, ‘To what do you owe your success, general?’ And he said, ‘That’s a fair question. I kept my army in the field.’ And we kept our army in the field. We never gave up,” Hall said. “We were relentless.”

“In the end, it all worked out, thank God. Now, the Brandy Station Foundation isn’t looked upon as ugly ogres anymore. We’re looked upon as responsible neighbors — which is exactly what we are.”

“In the beginning, and in the end, we were proved right,” Hall said. “What we were looking to do was to prevail for a battlefield that couldn’t speak for itself.

“Now, most of the Brandy Station Battlefield is forever protected. I wish for that accomplishment to serve as a personal legacy. And oh, by the way, we’re not finished yet. In fact, preservation efforts continue today at Brandy Station. We’ll never stop trying to save the entire battlefield.”

Bud Hall, more than anyone else, embodies the struggle to save the battlefield at Brandy Station, and I am personally grateful to him, both for his efforts, and for inviting me to come and speak at such an important event. It’s my honor to do so, and I hope to see some of you there.

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I spent a big chunk of this afternoon working on the library project. Here’s what’s gone on so far….

All of the fiction books were moved out of the main library and were relocated to a bookcase in our living room. It’s true. W.E.B. Griffin has been banished. The baseball books were also moved to the same bookcase. That opened up a 7 foot tall x 3 foot wide bookcase that had been completely full with fiction books.

I moved two bookcases that had been in my office home and put them in front of the closet in the library (the closet really doesn’t get used for much of anything, so it’s not a big loss), and moved all of the non-Civil War nonfiction books into them and into the bookcase previously occupied by the fiction books. Those three bookcases are pretty much completely full.

The rest of the room consists of a single, free-standing 7 foot tall x 3 foot wide bookcase and 24 linear feet of built-in floor-to-ceiling bookcases that pretty much fill up two walls of the room. Because the ceiling in that room is 7 feet and not 8, spacing has always been a little funky in the built-in’s. In addition, oversize books have always taken up a lot of space in those bookcases. Susan, who really has an engineer’s eye, figured out that if she re-drilled some of the holes in the built-in’s, she could gain a number of additional shelves for me to use. By doing that, she has gained five shelves worth of space for me.

Since Susan has finished that portion of the project, I started working the new books in today. I actually made pretty good progress today–I worked in all of the new biographies and all of the new campaign books, all of which filled the four additional shelves on the left side of the built-in’s. I have plenty of room left to work in the rest of the new stuff, which consists of four categories: cavalry books, unit histories, non-cavalry soldier letters and reminiscences, and miscellaneous. There are probably more new cavalry books and unit histories than anything else, so working them in will take the most space. However, these four categories will take the least time, but I am sure that they will fill up whatever’s left in the way of open shelf space, and I’m really not sure what I’m going to do with the oversize books. So, the upshot is that while there is enough shelf space to accommodate everything THIS time, there definitely will not be next time. And that’s when we’re really going to have a problem.

Once the shelving project is complete, I will take a couple of photos of the room and will post them here so you can get a sense of what I’m talking about.

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Not far from our house is one of my favorite destinations–a Half Price Books store. One never knows what one will find there, and sometimes, you can get some really excellent buys there. I’ve seen a few of my books there in the past, typically when they’ve been remaindered by my publishers. That never excites me, but I understand the business of bookselling, and I understand that publishers will remainder my books whether I want them to or not.

Today, though, was a first for me.

I wandered over by where they keep the valuable books–often rare, or antique books, that they keep under lock and key–and was stunned to find one of my books in that case, locked up, and with a $60 price tag on it. I actually didn’t even notice it at first–Susan did. I was trying to understand why an H.E. Howard book on the Battle of Cloyd’s Mountain right next to it had a $250 price tag on it.

Susan noticed that they had a signed first edition copy of the hardcover version of Glory Enough for All: Sheridan’s Second Raid and the Battle of Trevilian Station. The book isn’t even ten years old, although the hardcover edition definitely is out of print, so I was genuinely surprised to see that sort of price on it; it’s really not all that rare or hard to find even though the hardcover edition has been out of print for several years.

Susan asked the fellow at the checkout desk–who clearly was not accustomed to the idea of an author seeing one of his own books in the store–to unlock the cabinet, which he did. She took the photo that appears with this post, and then handed the book to me, as I was curious to see for whom I had signed it; it was entirely possible that it was one of the 2200 copies that had been purchased by CWPT as a fundraiser for the Trevilian Station battlefield. I opened the book and was flabbergasted to see that it was a copy that I signed and then gave as a gift to some of Susan’s cousins, who obviously thought so much of my gift that they sold it to Half Price Books. I have to admit that I was offended by that, and I have told Susan that I will never give those relatives another one of my books again.

The whole thing was just a very strange and surreal experience. It still weirds me out a little to find myself on the shelves of book stores, but this one was by far the strangest incident where I have found myself on the bookshelves of a book store. Weird. Very weird.

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