The Friday afternoon drizzle that started midway through Pennsylvania turned to a steady rainfall by the time I hit Maryland. Across the Mason-Dixon line and across the Potomac, the rain continued to fall. Autumn should have been in full blaze around me, but the rain dampened the colors the same way it dampened my spirits ( Read more... )

My high school history teacher was notoriously passionate about the Civil War. He’d stand at the front of the room amidst a cloud of chalk dust, the blackboard behind him covered with names like “McClellan” and “Gettysburg” scrawled in his excitable chalk-script. He was the first true Civil War buff I’d ever known ( Read more... )

In a recent post at Emerging Civil War, James Broomall spoke of a panel discussion he’ll be moderating at the upcoming conference at Gettysburg College, “The Future of Civil War History: Looking Beyond the 150th.” Jim will be focusing on the future of battlefield preservation and some of the management issues that will raise ( Read more... )

I flew from Long Beach up to Sacramento yesterday to meet with Ted Savas, my publisher. Well, that was the plan, anyway. L.A. traffic had other things to say about it, though. The trip to the airport should've taken an hour and fifteen minutes, so I gave myself two and a half--and it still wasn't enough time. So after some shuffling, I ended up on ( Read more... )

I know we may sometimes seem a little fixated on the death of Stonewall Jackson around here. Part of that stems from the fact that so many of us work or have worked for the Park Service at the Jackson Shrine. Part of it stems from the fact that Kris and I have written a book on The Last Days of Stonewall Jackson. Part of it is because I happen to ( Read more... )

For a series we posted at Emerging Civil War for New Year's“Mackowski, you need an iron,” Logo said to me as I strolled out to meet her for our ride down to the Jackson Shrine. It was my first day in uniform, and I’d be spending it with one of my favorite colleagues at my single-favorite Civil War site ( Read more... )

Edward Abbey’s uncompromising voice in the desert

#7: Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey (1968 ( Read more... )

“We who work for historical agencies do not own the sites. We are trustees for them. They are ours to restore and manage and interpret because earlier generations saved them for us; so we, in turn, have an obligation to future generations who have an equal claim to that heritage. Our trusteeship places upon us an ethical commitment to accuracy in ( Read more... )

While most of the sesquicentennial spotlight this year has focused on Ft. Sumter and First Manassas, the North Carolina coast has also been commemorating events. After all, the fall of the Outer Banks-beginning with the Confederate surrender at Hatteras Inlet in late August of 1861-represented the first major Union success of the war. It also ( Read more... )

One of the places I've always wanted to visit has been Fort Sumter. In fact, road-tripping to Charleston so I could visit the fort was the thing I wanted to do this summer more than anything. (Visiting Bennett Place, as I mentioned last week, was #2 on that same list ( Read more... )