Coming up...

Trying to get a new routine together in the midst of another schedule change .... sorry not to post more. The material is backing up.

Here's a preview of what may come in the next few days:

* The new CWPT. You can't tell from their website but CWPT is taking some big financial risks. In fact they seem to be finishing the year in risk overdrive...

* Cossacks in blue. An American cavalry system based on the Czar's Cossack regiments? In 1855, McClellan thought Cossacks offered the best paradigm for the U.S. arm. But by 1861, the highest ranking Cossack in Union service would be John Turchin, proving perhaps that you can take the Cossack off the Muslim frontier but you can't take the Muslim frontier out of the Cossack..

* How to be a corps commander: McDowell. His career was fashioned from the whole cloth of political sponsorship. His relationships wih Chase, Scott, and Lincoln prototyped McClellan's own later in the war.