First Bull Run Tour

Here’s an interesting recap of a recent tour at Manassas NBP with the students of Civil War Era Studies at Gettysburg College, led by Jim Burgess of the NPS.

13th Mississippi at First Bull Run

Dick Stanley has a few posts up on his 13th Mississippi Infantry Regiment blog about that unit and First Bull Run.  Check them out here.

New Blog – Gettysburg Civil War Institute

There’s another blog in the hot tub, this one from the Gettysburg College Civil War Institute.  Check out Civil War Institute.  OK, maybe this first post is pandering a bit – a version of that wink-wink nudge-nudge McClellan remark that some NPS rangers and other guides throw out there when they feel like they’re losing the crowd.  But I can’t blame them for putting up an attention grabber: it’s a very crowded hot tub, after all!

I’m not sure who will be contributing posts to this blog, but imagine it will be a team of folks headed up by Institute Director Peter Carmichael.  So my expectations are high.

Blogroll Updates

Please take some time to check out the Blogroll.  I’ve made quite a few additions, including some I haven’t mentioned before:

• Confederate Book Review
• Dead Confederates
• Spotsylvania Civil War
• The Sable Arm

Also check out Irish in the American Civil War, hosted by Daiman Shiels, an Irishman who specializes in battlefield archaeology

Lint In My Pocket – Artillery On the Ridge

Lint In My Pocket – Artillery On the Ridge is a blog maintained by Scott Summers, a poet and teacher in New Jersey.  Here’s how he recently described what he’s doing:

Originally, The Lint in My Pocket was meant to represent the small things that peter from my mind; however, I now see something different. I see the lint that lined the pockets of American Civil War soldiers, generals, colonels, civilians, etc. Like me, each of them carried lint in his/her pocket as well. Each of them was normal folk, as I am. Yet, these normal folk were thrust into incredible situations, situations laced with triumph, tragedy, love, hate, blood, breath, and death; they were forced to experience, in one way or another, the artillery on the ridge.

So, I press on. Hope you enjoy.

Last week, Scott posted this poem for the anniversary of the First Battle of Bull Run:

Stonewall Jackson at Manassas: July 21, 1861

That beard hangs
from his chin
like an anvil.

Ain’t no lie.
Yankee bullets
veer `round his head

so not to smack
against his face.
We should just point

him toward Washington
and shackle up behind
like a chain of geese.

I swear we’d rename
this country Virginia
before it’s cold enough

to tighten your skin
and freeze your breath.

Enjoying!

Letters from Wheat’s Battalion

Stuart Salling has posted these letters from a member of Wheat’s Battalion written before and just after the battle.

Stuart has given me the go-ahead to post these letters to the Bull Run Resources section, which I’ll be doing soon.  In the meantime, check them out on the Louisiana in the Civil War site.

Wheat’s Battalion

Stuart Salling hosts the blog Louisiana in the Civil War, and also wrote the recently published Louisianians in the Western Confederacy – the Adams-Gibson Brigade in the Civil War.  A contributor to his site posted this article, about the Battalion from formation through First Bull Run.   Check it out.

First Bull Run on Another Blog

Mike Noirot has a post up about First Bull Run at his Civil War Battles and Battlefields blog.  He also includes links to his photos of the battlefield, and to his summary of the battle (I have a few quibbles – for instance, I think he mixes up which Confederate brigades belonged to Beauregard’s army and which belonged to Johnston’s) but it’s worth a look.

Presidents Gotta Eat, Too!

I received a note from Suzanne Evans, who maintains the blog The History Chef.  Some pretty cool stuff that so far seems to focus on eating habits and favorite recipes of the POTUS through the years.  From the site:

Hi there! My name is Suzy Evans and I live in Southern California with my husband and our four young kids. I received my Ph.D. in history from UC Berkeley in 2008 and began this blog last year while writing a cookbook about the presidents’ favorite foods. My goal is to help parents and kids learn how to cook together, learn about history together, and hopefully help them create many great memories and meals together. Welcome!

Check it out.

On Firing Generals

I stayed away from the whole McChrystal flap – I tend to think comparisons of modern to historical events are nothing more than parlor tricks: you can construct them to make whatever point you choose.  (For example, was Lincoln’s condemnation of living off of the sweat of another’s brow an indictment of the welfare state or of capitalism – or just of slavery?)  But I think fellow blogger Dmitri has a good commentary here.  The notebooks to which he refers were discussed here (the first of four parts).