Shout Out

OK, enough with the telling you what I’m going to do.  Last week I got some good news from Art Bergeron at the United States Army Military History Institute (USAMHI) in Carlisle, PA.  Art is a fellow member of Dick Weeks’ The Civil War Western Theater Discussion Group, and I’ve enjoyed his comments there for some time.  I didn’t realize that in addition to being an author of some note (Confederate Mobile, The Red River Campaign, Guide to Louisiana Confederate Military Units, to name but a very few of his published works), Art is also Reference Historian at Carlisle.  I dropped him a line and asked how to go about doing some research at the facility as I had been asked to submit an article on a Bull Run personality to America’s Civil War magazine.  Not only did Art give me that information, but he also told me what type of information (documents and photographs) they have on my subject – one “box” each.  Thanks Art!

I’ll be heading out to Carlisle hopefully within the next few weeks.  I really wish they were open on Saturdays, but beggars can’t be choosers.  To be safe, I’m going to schedule two days in town.  I’m also going to check and see what they have on the 205th PAVI.  I recently learned that my great-great-grandfather John B. Smeltzer was an 18 year old private in Company C, and was wounded on April 2, 1865 in the regiment’s assault on Battery 30 at Petersburg.

Dang, it looks like I wound up talking about what I’m going to do again!  Well, since I’ve already done it, I may as well say that I hope to make a post tomorrow about this infuriating Tidball biography I’m reading, and that right now I’m going to do a little more work on the Confederate OOB.  I’ll let you know when it’s ready to be viewed.