Blogging

There are two new blogs that I want to add to the blogroll.

16-year-old Sarah Adler of Hanover, PA maintains an insightful Civil War blog called Ten Roads in recognition of the network of ten roads that comes together in Gettysburg. Sarah volunteers at the Lincoln train station in Gettysburg, and I enjoy her insights. I’ve added a link to her blog.

I have also added a link to Rene Tyree’s blog, called Wig Wags. Rene is a graduate student in military history at American Military University, where I used to teach. The stated objective of the blog is to organize course material, but it seems to go much deeper than that. I find Rene’s insights and observations interesting, so I’ve also added a link to Rene’s blog.

I’ve also deleted the link to Mark Peters’ blog, as it has now been more than two months since the last post.

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My publisher, Ted Savas, has jumped into the blogging fray with a new blog from a publisher’s perspective. Welcome to te blogosphere, T. I will look forward to your insights.

I’ve added a link to Ted’s blog.

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Madness Mike has a really interesting post on his blog tonight about former Presidents of the United States during the Civil War. I recommend it.

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Kevin Levin has been following the evolution of a new blog dedicated to the advancement of Neo-Confederate ideology for several months now. Today, for the first time, I took a look at it, and it’s scary.

Calling herself Dixie Dawn, here’s how our Neo-Confederate heroine describes herself: “a staunch rebel if you will. A true southern raised redneck girl and a believer in the real causes for civil war as well as preserving the heritage of our south and the confederate soldiers.” Not hard to figure out what her worldview is, is it? It likewise isn’t hard to figure out that any attempts to try to engage her in rational discussion that might get her to change her mind won’t be terribly successful and will only lead to excruciating levels of frustration for those who might try.

What’s more is that Dixie Dawn allows anonymous comments on her blog. She permits one clown in particular to launch personal attacks on anyone who disagrees with the neo-Confederate worldview and then allows that person to hide behind anonymity. NOTHING infuriates me more than that, which is why I don’t permit it here. I likewise do not permit anyone to hide behind some made-up name here, either. If you’re going to attack someone, at least have the guts to sign your name to your post. Otherwise, you’re a gutless coward who’s not worth the time of day or the bandwidth clogged up by him or her.

Nevertheless, to his undying credit, fellow blogger David Woodbury has fought the good fight and has tried, with admirable patience and with admirable restraint, not to respond to the numerous personal attacks launched upon him by the anonymous knuckle dragger who refuses to sign his comments. David, I don’t know how you do it. Perhaps you have a Don Quixote complex, or perhaps you enjoy being frustrated. More power to you. I’d have blown a gasket long ago.

In any event, this sort of neo-Confederate hooey scares me, as I worry that the uneducated will actually buy into this crap and accept it as true. We have to be diligent and we have to fight the neo-Confederate wars every day. I have done so, and will continue to do so. Kudos to Kevin and David for fighting the good fight (although Kevin’s post makes it pretty clear that he’s throwing in the towel on Dixie Dawn).

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Two more blogs appear to have bitten the dust. Neither Mike Koepke’s blog nor the Touch the Elbow blog have had new posts in more than two months. Consequently. I have deleted the links to both. If they ever resurface, I’m happy to consider linking them again. I’m especially sorry to see Touch the Elbow go. There was always good content on that blog.

I also realized that I had been remiss in not adding a link to Jenny Goellnitz’s fine blog, Draw the Sword and Throw Away the Scabbard, which I visit every day. That oversight has now been rectified.

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On October 10, 2005, I made one of my first posts on this blog. It shows up as p. 23 on the blog. By comparison, this is p. 579. That post dealt with all of the reasons why I’m no fan of Nathan Bedford Forrest.

What amazes me about it is that people continue to post comments to this particular post two years later. I had a new comment posted there tonight. A number of them have contained nasty personal attacks on me just because I don’t buy into their hero worship of Forrest. Each of those has been deleted because I don’t allow personal attacks on me on my own blog.

To give the latest poster credit, he was courteous and rational in his discussion. Thank you for your civility.

Let me just say a couple of things about this…

1. NOTHING that any of you say is going to change my mind about this issue. I appreciate the effort. I really do. However, I’ve spent years pondering it, and I’m quite set in my opinion. There’s not much point in trying to convince me–you’re going to fail and you’re going to waste your breath in the process.

2. That a two-year old post continues to generate comments is proof positive that Forrest is an extremely controversial figure that continues to polarize opinions. I don’t ever see that particular trend changing.

3. The ferocity of the Forrest supporters is really amazing. I can’t think of another Civil War figure who generates such ferocious responses as does Nathan Bedford Forrest. Why is that?

As I said, this whole thing just flabbergasts me. I can only hope that this ends sooner or later…However, I don’t have any reason to expect that it will…..

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Hat tip to Brian Downey, whose post about this blog brought it to my attention. Good catch, Brian.

Mike, a substitute teacher from the Toledo area, has an excellent blog called Madness Mike that actually began in July. There is quite a bit of really good content on this blog already, and I’m adding it to my blogroll. Frankly, I’m not sure how this one managed to slip by all of us, but I’m glad Brian found it.

Check it out.

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On September 23, 2005, I made my first post on this blog, dipping my toe into the blogging pool for the first time. Two years and 539 posts later, I’m still standing. It’s been a real labor of love, and I’ve enjoyed every minute.

Any number of Civil War blogs have come and gone since that time, some memorable, and some definitely not. I’ve published several books in that time, and I’ve seen the culmination of a couple of projects that I’ve been working on for 15 years or more. I’ve seen changes in the book publishing industry, and I’ve seen a sea change in the availability of primary source resources on the Internet. You’ve been along with Susan and me as we’ve faced personal and professional challenges.

Who knows what the next two years will bring? However, I fully expect that I will still be here blogging in two more years. And I hope that all of you who’ve made this whole exercise worthwhile by giving some of your precious time to indulge my rantings will still be here with me.

Thanks, and I hope you will continue to come along for this ride, wherever it might lead us.

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WordPress tells me whenever somebody links to my blog. Today, one popped up for a blog I’d never heard of, called Mounted Valor, a name I did not recognize. So, I went and checked it out.

It turns out to be Chris Swift’s new blog, which, unlike his old blog, deals only with Civil War cavalry. I have changed the link in the blogroll, which was to his old blog, Yankee Tirade. That link is dead, and I was planning on deleting it this weekend. I’m glad to see that Chris is back and resuming his studies of Civil War cavalry. Welcome back, Chris.

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I am in Leesburg, Virginia on business today and part of tomorrow. Consequently, I got together with fellow blogger Dimitri Rotov for dinner this evening in downtown Leesburg. We ate at a very interesting place suggested by Dimitri. It’s called The Green Tree, and it features menu items based on 18th Century recipes.

The meal was excellent, the wine dry and fruity, and the dinner conversation delightful. If you’re ever going to be in the area, be sure to look Dimitri up. He makes for an excellent dinner companion.

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