A Public Appearance

Don’t miss it!  I will be speaking to  – and hopefully with – the good folks of the Loudoun Valley Civil War Roundtable in Leesburg, VA on June 14, 2011.  This will be a program on the twisted tale of Peter Conover Hains, who fired the opening salvo of the First Battle of Bull Run with his 30-pdr Parrott gun, “Long Tom”.  This is my second confirmed speaking gig for next year.  I have two others which I’m pretty sure are go, one at the end of June and one at the end of September.  I don’t know if any more are in the offing, but I’ll keep the Book Me, Danno page updated for my fans, both of you.

What’s Up With Me

For those many, many fans of Bull Runnings who just have to know what’s going on in the exciting, fun-filled life of its host, I have a couple of things going on right now. The most immediate is the completion of the next installment of Collateral Damage for Civil War Times. This will feature a home on a Western Theater farm, though it’s not really on a battlefield and it’s on the Eastern seaboard. I checked the CWT website but don’t see that they’ve ever put one of these articles online. If they ever do, I’ll let you know.  And yes, I will be putting up all the photos I took of the Roulette Farm, my subject of the current issue of the magazine, in the near future.

You may have noticed that I have a speaking date coming up at the Rufus Barringer Civil War Roundtable in Pinehurst, NC in 2011.  After much deliberation, I’ve decided to make a presentation on Peter Conover Hains, the young artillery lieutenant who opened the ball for the Union at Bull Run with a shot from his 30 pdr Parrott, Long Tom.  I’ve been fascinated with his story for a long time, but haven’t really buckled down on it.  Of course I’ll share the fruits with you all here, when the time is right.

Other than the above mentioned date, I really don’t have any firm commitments to speak in 2011, or the rest of 2010 for that matter.  A couple of roundtables have expressed some interest, but I haven’t nailed anything down for sure.  I’m pretty sure I’ll be leading at least on bus tour on the battlefield, but even that isn’t official yet.  Keep in mind that I have incredibly high standards: I pretty much won’t speak to any group unless they say Hey, would you like to speak to our group?

If your group is interested in a Bull Run related program – or one on any of the other Civil War topics I’ve written on here or elsewhere – you can contact me at the email address in the right hand column.

Last, the Facebook fan page is doing well – Bull Runnings has 136 “likers” as of this morning.  If you want to follow on Facebook, you can use the link in the right hand column.

Speaking Update

I’ve updated my speaking engagement page (aka Book Me, Dano!, where you can contact me about speaking to your group) to indicate I will be making an appearance before the good folks at the Rufus Barringer Civil War Roundtable in Pinehurst, NC, on May 19, 2011.  Tentatively, I will be giving a presentation based on my Civil War Times magazine column that is now called Collateral Damage, though I think I will be sticking with the original title In Harm’s Way.  If you’re in the area, stop in.  I’m looking forward to seeing everyone there.