Coming Up Live From the Battlefield, July 21, 2021

In just a couple of weeks (that makes me really nervous, because it’s just 13 days and I don’t feel nearly ready), I’ll be coming to you live via Facebook with Dana Shoaf, Melissa Winn, and Civil War Times for a series of short vids from various sites at Manassas National Battlefield Park, on the 160th Anniversary of the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas). It should be fun – I’ll be sharing various cool (well, what I consider cool) stories from the field, and we’ll be joined by Superintendent Brandon Bies to discuss some new additions/deletions on the field that will greatly enhance interpretation of the First Battle of Bull Run. You can follow Civil War Times Magazine, and their wonderful First Monday videos (ours will be a Third Wednesday) on Facebook here. Below is a little example of how these things work from a couple of years ago. But we’ll be mostly outside. And hot. We’ll probably be really, really hot.

Pre-Tour Reading: 69th NYSM Command

Head on over to Damian Shiels’s Irish in the American Civil War for this read on The Men Who Led the 69th New York on the Bull Run Battlefield.

The tour is May 11. Remember, rain or shine. We’ll meet at the Stone Bridge parking lot at 9 AM. Dress for the weather.

I’m a Bigger Jagoff Than I Thought!

Go here. Find out what a jerk I am, in a Usenet kind of way. They’re right – I never wrote a Varney review. I did post the Hood one though, right here.

McDowell and Franklin

I was recently going through some older posts, and was reminded of a series of posts from over 4 years ago by Dmitri Rotov over at Civil War Bookshelf. They explore the relationship between Irvin McDowell and William Franklin, and shed some light on the duo prior to First Bull Run (and beyond). Check them out – good stuff.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Our Friend Shotgun

Shotgun Discusses Action on Chinn Ridge April 2005

I received news today that my friend (and yours, even if you don’t know it) Dick Weeks, aka Shotgun, is quite ill. All of us who comprise the online Civil War “community” owe Shotgun a debt of gratitude. Probably more than any single person he has over the past 20 or so years shaped how that community looks today. In addition to building and maintaining one of the most widely used general Civil War websites, Shotgun’s Home of the American Civil War, he has  also maintained a message board and a chat room which is still active. And by organizing annual battlefield “musters,” he has provided the opportunity for far flung individuals who had known each other by screen name only to meet, learn, share research, and form long lasting friendships.

Shotgun possesses the rare ability to carry over his friendly, helpful, generous, and civil personality from “real life” to the web. While a sterile bio might leave one with the impression he is a “tough old bird” – and in some ways he is, a military man who calls ’em as he sees ’em – Shotgun is a truly good guy, and even if he tells you you’re full of, um, baloney, he can do it in a way that doesn’t make you feel like that of which you are most likely full.

I’ve been on plenty of battlefield tours of varying sizes and logistical complexity over the years, some costing hundreds of dollars, with dozens of attendees and multiple faculty, but none have exceeded a muggy, wet day spent with Shotgun and our mutual friend Teej Smith touring the battlefield of Second Manassas. If you’ve never had the chance to walk that ground with Sgt. Weeks and his hand-colored Hennessy maps, you’ve really missed out. But best of all was retiring to Shotgun’s house in Herndon for what he calls “grilled meat and adult beverages.” To this day I can’t recall what kind of meat was grilled, but delicious as it was it didn’t compare to the conversation and camaraderie shared by three tired but happy Civil War nuts that night.

Over the years Shotgun has been many things to many people – devoted son, father, and husband, patriotic two-branch veteran, mentor, innovator, hand-lender – but I’ll bet most folks whose lives he has touched think of him simply as friend. His daughter Michele informs us that he’d really like to hear from his friends just now, and she’ll see to it that he’s made aware of the contents of any messages sent to his email address, shotgun@civilwarhome.com.

Dick, the thoughts and prayers of my family are with you and yours. Thanks for everything. You’re Finest Kind.

New Blog: Tales from the Army of the Potomac

New to the Civil War blogroll is Tales from the Army of the Potomac, hosted by Dr. Timothy Orr. Tim teaches history at Old Dominion University, is a Gettysburg College grad, earned his PhD at Penn State [ROAR!], has been a seasonal ranger with the NPS and a re-enactor, and is an all-around good guy. He may be best known as the historian who made Kelly Clarkson cry on national television. This should be good stuff, if the first four posts are any indication. Here’s an interview he did for Bull Runnings a while back.

 

Civil War Stuff on a Civil War Blog, of All Places!

Be sure to check out this series of posts over at To the Sound Of the Guns. Craig Swain is digging up some really cool stuff in high resolution photos of heavy guns around Charleston, SC. Artillery and material culture – you’ll learn something in spite of yourself. You’ll have to hunt through the list, but consider this one.

Penn State’s Pennsylvania Civil War Newspapers Online

Check it out here (hat tip to Kevin Levin).

Popular Drivel

If you haven’t heard about “historian” Richard Slotkin’s new book on Antietam, Google it. I will not link to it here. I refuse. Just like the Supreme Court and prior restraint, the book has been roundly rejected by a number of Antietam scholars I know. But check out this critique of a recent interview this “historian” – make that “MAJOR historian” – recently did with NPR.

Communist Plot

I’ve been informed by my friend Craig Swain that Bull Runnings has been “blocked” in China. As we used to say back in the day:

Better dead than Red.