Potomac Books published my book The Union Cavalry Comes of Age: Hartwood Church to Brandy Station, 1863 in 2003. This is one of my favorite of my projects just because it deals with stuff that is seldom addressed. I also had a great deal of fun documenting cavalry operations in the Chancellorsville Campaign in putting it together.

A year ago, Potomac Books decided to remainder the rest of the hardcover inventory of the book and to let the hardcover version go out of print. I didn’t agree with the decision, but nobody asked for my opinion, and more importantly, nobody gave a damn about my opinion. However, at that time, I was assured that the softcover version was still selling …

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I’m home. Again. For three days again. And then it’s on the road again….

Here’s a report on the weekend.

I left here on Thursday morning. I left early, intending to spend a couple of hours at Cedar Creek on the way. Just as I hit Winchester, it started to rain, so my stop at Cedar Creek was just to see whether I could buy a pin (they don’t sell them). I remain absolutely horrified and repulsed by the decisions made by the Cedar Creek Foundation. Maybe it’s a good thing it was raining.

I got to Culpeper at about 4:00 (it’s a 7.5 hour drive of nearly 450 miles to Culpeper) and tracked down Mike Block, who is a …

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A reader forwarded this appalling article to me today:

Drastic Expansion of Mining Operations Threatens Belle Grove Plantation and Cedar Creek Civil War Battlefield
Blasting, Quarry Truck Traffic, Noise and Multi-Story High Waste Piles Will Alter Historic and Rural Gem of the Shenandoah Valley

Washington, DC – June 18, 2008 – The National Trust for Historic Preservation today reaffirmed its strong opposition to radically expanded mining operations proposed in and around Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park. Cedar Creek and Belle Grove are situated in a rural landscape whose centuries of historical and cultural significance include 18th century Shenandoah Valley settlements, 18th-19th century plantation lands and Civil War battle grounds. The Belgian mining conglomerate Carmeuse Lime & Stone

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Tomorrow morning, I head off to Culpeper, Virginia for the weekend’s tour of central Virginia cavalry actions. It’s going to be a full two and a half days, and I don’t know if I will have time to post here until I get home Sunday night. I will try, but please don’t be surprised if you don’t hear from me again until I return home.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

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In preparing for my tour this weekend, I spoke to Gerry Harlow, the founder of the Trevilian Station Battlefield Foundation last night, as I have invited a representative of the TSBF to speak to my tour group about the preservation effort on Saturday.

During the course of the conversation, Gerry told me some terrific news that I want to share here.

Charles Goodall Trevilian was the wealthiest man in all of Louisa County, Virginia. The stop on the Virginia Central Railroad was named for him, as the depot was located on Trevilian’s land. His house sits about 75 yards from the location of the war-time depot. The yard of the house saw heavy fighting on the afternoon of June 11, …

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This story checks out on Snopes.com, so it is a true story. Hat tip to Sam Hood for bringing it to my attention.

Charlie Brown was a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot with the 379th Bomber Group at Kimbolton, England. His B-17 was called ‘Ye Old Pub’ and was in a terrible state, having been hit by flak and fighters. The compass was damaged and they were flying deeper over enemy territory instead of heading home to Kimbolton.

After flying over an enemy airfield, a pilot named Franz Stigler was ordered to take off and shoot down the B-17. When he got near the

B-17, he could not believe his eyes. In his words, he ‘had never seen a plane

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I’m home again after a terrific but hectic and exhausting weekend at my 25th reunion at my alma mater, Dickinson College. I will spare you the gory details. Suffice it to say that it was truly wonderful catching up with old friends, fraternity brothers, and classmates whom I have not seen in 25 years. There were 20 in my pledge class. Two transferred and one flunked out, meaning 17 of us graduated. Seven of us made it back this weekend, and we had a great time getting caught up on the years that have flown by.

And Susan’s really a good sport for coming along to suffer through stories that mean nothing to her, and meeting all of these …

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Tomorrow, I head to my 25th reunion at my alma mater, Dickinson College. It’s another 6.5 hours of driving to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, but I think it will be worth it. It hardly seems possible that I could have graduated from there 25 years ago and that I could possibly be 47 years old, but alas, both are true. I haven’t seen most of my classmates in 25 years, and I’m greatly looking forward to seeing some of my old friends and drinking companions after all these years. The college invited me to come back to conduct a signing on Saturday morning, and they made it an offer I couldn’t refuse by picking up the tab for the entire trip, …

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Time for some housekeeping, which I haven’t done in quite a while.

Steven Mynes has a new blog on battlefield stomping. Thanks to Brett Schulte for bringing it to my attention. I’ve added a link. Welcone to the blogospher, Steven.

I’ve also finally gotten around to adding John Hoptak’s 48th Pennsylvania at Antietam blog to the list, which I’ve been terribly remiss in doing.

I’ve restored John Maass’ excellent blog to the blogroll now that John is back blogging again. A belated welcome back, John. You were missed.

Since it’s now been 10 weeks since the last post, I’ve deleted the link to Chris Army’s blog. If he resumes posting, I will be happy to add a new link.

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I would also be remiss if I didn’t at least acknowledge today as the 144th anniversary of the Battle of Trevilian Station, the largest all-cavalry battle of the war (remember that 3,000 Union infantry participated at Brandy Station). Trevilian Station had a great deal of strategic significance to the outcome of the war; it’s no stretch of the imagination to say that had Sheridan defeated Hampton at Trevilian Station, the war likely would have ended as many as six months earlier than it did, and there would have been no 1864 Valley Campaign.

Sheridan’s orders were to march along the north bank of the North Anna River, cross somewhere near Carpenter’s Ford, and then march along the route of the …

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