Connections to the Civil War Everywhere I Turn!

One of my partners in the new law firm practices only in the realm of sports and entertainment law. In other words, he’s an agent. Most of his clients are NBA coaches, but he also works with some entertainers as well. He recently took on a new client, a female reporter at our local NBC affiliate.

Our law firm is brand new. It was only formed 90 days ago. The suburban community where we’re located has been trying to attract new business, so it wholeheartedly supported my partners when they decided to light there, offering goodies such as tax abatements and the like to sweeten the pot and make it worth their while to do so. The town fathers wanted to have a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate our launch, which was held on Thursday night. We decided to make it a small open house, and invited some clients and friends.

Since the reporter had been in the office earlier today meeting with my partner, he invited her and her husband to the open house. I’d met her briefly earlier in the day, but was in something of a hurry and couldn’t do much more than have a brief conversation on my way to a meeting on the other side of town. When she and her husband came to the open house, we got to talk quite a bit more. I asked where she’d gone to college, and when she told me Virginia Tech, I asked if she had ever taken a course with either Bud Robertson or Jack Davis. She then mentioned that her first job had been with a station in the Harrisonburg, and I mentioned how much I love the Shenandoah Valley. With that, she got a big smile on her face.

It turns out that she is a native of the Shenandoah Valley and grew up in a town that was destroyed during Sheridan’s burning of the Valley in October 1864. Her father is a reenactor, and she told me in an e-mail tonight how much she likes the Cedar Creek battlefield and Belle Grove Plantation. It truly is a small world. Who’d have thunk it?

Everywhere I go, I meet people with fascinating connections to the Civil War. I think that’s what I enjoy most about my travels in the Civil War community, and why I love talking to the people I meet along the way. It’s what makes what I do rewarding.