What a fine new website, launched this week:
REGULARS!
Regular Infantry Division
The United States Army during the American Civil War
Another beauty from Tim Reese, creator of the Crampton's Gap site, author of Sykes' Regular Infantry Division, 1861-1864: A History of Regular United States Infantry Operations in the Civil War's Eastern Theater and Sealed with Their Lives: the Battle for Crampton's Gap.
It's rich, deep, accurate and made with that secret ingredient, love of subject. Take time out to visit the Regulars today.
3/31/2004
Glad to see the Lincoln Cat is blogging again.
The blog is named after a riff by the incredible '50s wordsmith "Lord Buckley" (stage name) on the Gettysburg address.
I shall translate in the modern somatic of the hip,
this new zig-zag somatic,
his beloved Gettysburg Address.
Check it out. If it bothers you, think of it as Lord Buckley's address instead.
The blog is named after a riff by the incredible '50s wordsmith "Lord Buckley" (stage name) on the Gettysburg address.
I shall translate in the modern somatic of the hip,
this new zig-zag somatic,
his beloved Gettysburg Address.
Check it out. If it bothers you, think of it as Lord Buckley's address instead.
"You create a connection with a soldier from Leominster who served 100-something years ago," said David Wilson, a Historical Society trustee...
Can this Historical Society count past 100? Or is this more like a pop history society, where they don't sweat the details?
Can this Historical Society count past 100? Or is this more like a pop history society, where they don't sweat the details?
3/30/2004
Maryland-based Civil War Preservation Trust is conspicuous by its absence from several battlefields, most notably Crampton's Gap. Perhaps this is because the Trust is staffed by former political aides and the political powers in Maryland have decided that there never was such a battle; that it was all of a piece with something called "the South Mountain battles."
There is a Crampton's Gap related event every year: "The Engagement at Burkittsville," a rolling tour with re-enactors staging battles in a small-town setting.
Word from the good people who stage this event is that over half of any profits earned this year must go to Civil War Preservation Trust, a non-sponsor, non-organizer, non-helper of many years standing.
How did that happen? Why?
CWPT are everywhere, raising money they don't need, to not save battlefields and with a maximum amount of self-glorification. We looked at their tax records a few weeks ago; their annual land transactions can generally be lumped together in merely four to six entries, each carefully labeled to prevent anyone from knowing who benefited financially from the transaction and where exactly the land is. We saw also that they are sitting on assets of $16 million and that their income far exceeds their expenses.
They don't need the money. There are battlefield lands here that need to be protected that they have resisted protecting. The preservation organizations staging the event in Burkittsville need the money but are giving a major portion away to CWPT.
It's crazier than the turns of a mountain creek. And as long as they are allowed to operate in absolute secrecy, we'll never know the how or the why.
There is a Crampton's Gap related event every year: "The Engagement at Burkittsville," a rolling tour with re-enactors staging battles in a small-town setting.
Word from the good people who stage this event is that over half of any profits earned this year must go to Civil War Preservation Trust, a non-sponsor, non-organizer, non-helper of many years standing.
How did that happen? Why?
CWPT are everywhere, raising money they don't need, to not save battlefields and with a maximum amount of self-glorification. We looked at their tax records a few weeks ago; their annual land transactions can generally be lumped together in merely four to six entries, each carefully labeled to prevent anyone from knowing who benefited financially from the transaction and where exactly the land is. We saw also that they are sitting on assets of $16 million and that their income far exceeds their expenses.
They don't need the money. There are battlefield lands here that need to be protected that they have resisted protecting. The preservation organizations staging the event in Burkittsville need the money but are giving a major portion away to CWPT.
It's crazier than the turns of a mountain creek. And as long as they are allowed to operate in absolute secrecy, we'll never know the how or the why.
With Wesley Clark's withdrawal from the 2004 presidential contest, you would think the McClellan analogies would stop. But no, here's a fellow who wants to match Mac's 1864 run to Kerry's current predicament.
This year, editorial page readers have learned a lot about 1864 election. Little of it has been sound, however.
This year, editorial page readers have learned a lot about 1864 election. Little of it has been sound, however.
Last week, in remarking on the planned 300-ft tall statue of Honest Abe in Lincoln, Illinois, this should have occurred to me:
Your heart has to go out to a town of 15,400 that has its economic hopes pegged to a scheme like that.
Definitely.
Your heart has to go out to a town of 15,400 that has its economic hopes pegged to a scheme like that.
Definitely.
Homer was transplanted to Cold Mountain. Euripedes, in a college stage production, was recently set in Reconstruction Dixie. Now, Strindberg is moved from Sweden to magnolia land.
3/29/2004
If today's Army is Jominian rather than Clausewitzian, does this mean that its higher-level doctrinal development is steeped in the Civil War? I think so. Mahan, at West Point, rooted Jominian theory and practice in the minds of a generation of young soldiers, McClellan and Halleck among them.
Yes, the Army talks up Clausewitz and lives up Jomini. Any serving officer could tell you.
In its history texts and teachings, for instance, it reveres Lee and Jackson at the expense of McClellan and Meade. (Lee, Jackson = Clausewitz. McClellan, Meade = Jomini.)
In actual practice, it manages to out-McClellan Mac from day-to-day and war-to-war; at least in terms of what the Republican radicals imagined McClellan and other West Pointers to be. In actual practice, any officer, encouraged to admire Lee and Jackson who then imitates them will have a career of less than one fleeting moment. (I'm thinking not of clever strokes but of naked, hungry and shoeless troops; the summary execution of stragglers; the withholding of operational plans from subordinates; the repeated arrest of senior subordinates; high rates of desertion; frontal assaults on fortified positions while outnnumbered, and similar failings ad nauseum.)
What the Army says it likes and what it does can contradict each other, because a system of rewards and punishments make its real values clear to its members. The war colleges can teach Clausewitz without a downside, because Army life is nurturing and rewarding Jominians.
The disconnects, however, can be viewed from afar with a certain humor. Colin Powell opens the first Gulf War publicly criticizing McClellan and promising never to be like him (or like his pop history persona); our Saudi allies later reveal their continuous complaints to Powell about the excessive time building up before the attack; and they criticize U.S. estimates of the Iraqi army's size as wildly excessive.
The U.S. Army’s doctrinal application of the theories of war at the tactical and operational levels shows that, at its core, it is a Jominian institution.
[...]
While leaders of the Army and self-proclaimed civilian experts of military thought prefer to quote Clausewitz when describing current and future operations, it is to the comfort and optimism of Jomini that the U.S. Army continually returns.
Yes, the Army talks up Clausewitz and lives up Jomini. Any serving officer could tell you.
In its history texts and teachings, for instance, it reveres Lee and Jackson at the expense of McClellan and Meade. (Lee, Jackson = Clausewitz. McClellan, Meade = Jomini.)
In actual practice, it manages to out-McClellan Mac from day-to-day and war-to-war; at least in terms of what the Republican radicals imagined McClellan and other West Pointers to be. In actual practice, any officer, encouraged to admire Lee and Jackson who then imitates them will have a career of less than one fleeting moment. (I'm thinking not of clever strokes but of naked, hungry and shoeless troops; the summary execution of stragglers; the withholding of operational plans from subordinates; the repeated arrest of senior subordinates; high rates of desertion; frontal assaults on fortified positions while outnnumbered, and similar failings ad nauseum.)
What the Army says it likes and what it does can contradict each other, because a system of rewards and punishments make its real values clear to its members. The war colleges can teach Clausewitz without a downside, because Army life is nurturing and rewarding Jominians.
The disconnects, however, can be viewed from afar with a certain humor. Colin Powell opens the first Gulf War publicly criticizing McClellan and promising never to be like him (or like his pop history persona); our Saudi allies later reveal their continuous complaints to Powell about the excessive time building up before the attack; and they criticize U.S. estimates of the Iraqi army's size as wildly excessive.
The U.S. Army’s doctrinal application of the theories of war at the tactical and operational levels shows that, at its core, it is a Jominian institution.
[...]
While leaders of the Army and self-proclaimed civilian experts of military thought prefer to quote Clausewitz when describing current and future operations, it is to the comfort and optimism of Jomini that the U.S. Army continually returns.
This is one way to do heritage tourism; it takes the guided city tour to the state level. The Civil War battlefield sites in a border state like Kentucky may not be connected in time or by campaign, but this offers an nice supplement to self-guided multistate touring.
You thought they were interring the remains of the Hunley sailors, but they were honoring sediment found in the submarine. Someone must have concluded "same difference."
3/27/2004
SATURDAY | McClellan poetry day! And I'm off on the wrong foot with a lyric I should have presented last week in honor of St. Patrick's Day: We'll Fight for Uncle Sam. It's set to a drinking song, "Whiskey in the Jar" (MP3 here). Use the link, and you can actually sing the song.
Now, if there's one thing worse than doggerel, perhaps it's doggerel written in dialect. May be worth slogging through to get to couplets like:
And, once again, the Stars and Stripes will to the breeze be swellin’,
If Uncle Abe will give us back our darling boy McClellan.
The music link will support a slow connection and the tune is a good one.
WE’LL FIGHT FOR UNCLE SAM
I am a modern hairo; my name is Paddy Kearney;
Not long ago I landed from the bogs of sweet Killarney;
I used to cry out : Soap Fat! Bekase that was my trade, sir,
Till I ‘listed for a Soger-boy wid Corcoran’s brigade, sir.
CHORUS: For to fight for Uncle Sam;
He’ll lade us on to glory, O!,
He’ll lade us on to glory, O!
To save the Stripes and Stars.
Ora, once in regimentals, my mind it did bewildher.
I bid good-bye to Biddy dear, and all the darling childher;
Whoo! Says I, the Irish Volunteers the divil a one afraid is,
Bekase we’ve got the soger bould, McClellan for to lade us.
CHORUS: For to fight for Uncle Sam,
He’ll lade us on to glory, O!,
He’ll lade us on to glory, O!
To save the Stripes and Stars.
We soon got into battle: we made a charge of bay’nets:
The Rebel blaggards soon gave way: they fell as thick as paynuts.
Och hone! The slaughter that we made, bedad it was delighting!
For, the Irish lads in action are the divil’s boys for fighting.
CHORUS: They’ll fight for Uncle Sam,
He’ll lade us on to glory, O!,
He’ll lade us on to glory, O!
To save the Stripes and Stars.
Och, sure, we never will give in, in any sort of manner,
Until the South comes back again, beneath the Starry-Banner:
And if John Bull should interfere, he’d suffer for it truly;
For, soon the Irish Volunteers would give him Ballyhooly.
CHORUS: Oh! they’ll fight for Uncle Sam,
He’ll lade us on to glory, O!,
He’ll lade us on to glory, O!
To save the Stripes and Stars.
And now before I ind my song, this free advice I’ll tender;
We soon will use the Rebels up, and make them all surrender,
And, once again, the Stars and Stripes will to the breeze be swellin’,
If Uncle Abe will give us back our darling boy McClellan.
CHORUS: Oh! we’ll follow little Mac,
He’ll lade us on to glory, O!,
He’ll lade us on to glory, O!
To save the Stripes and Stars.
Now, if there's one thing worse than doggerel, perhaps it's doggerel written in dialect. May be worth slogging through to get to couplets like:
And, once again, the Stars and Stripes will to the breeze be swellin’,
If Uncle Abe will give us back our darling boy McClellan.
The music link will support a slow connection and the tune is a good one.
WE’LL FIGHT FOR UNCLE SAM
I am a modern hairo; my name is Paddy Kearney;
Not long ago I landed from the bogs of sweet Killarney;
I used to cry out : Soap Fat! Bekase that was my trade, sir,
Till I ‘listed for a Soger-boy wid Corcoran’s brigade, sir.
CHORUS: For to fight for Uncle Sam;
He’ll lade us on to glory, O!,
He’ll lade us on to glory, O!
To save the Stripes and Stars.
Ora, once in regimentals, my mind it did bewildher.
I bid good-bye to Biddy dear, and all the darling childher;
Whoo! Says I, the Irish Volunteers the divil a one afraid is,
Bekase we’ve got the soger bould, McClellan for to lade us.
CHORUS: For to fight for Uncle Sam,
He’ll lade us on to glory, O!,
He’ll lade us on to glory, O!
To save the Stripes and Stars.
We soon got into battle: we made a charge of bay’nets:
The Rebel blaggards soon gave way: they fell as thick as paynuts.
Och hone! The slaughter that we made, bedad it was delighting!
For, the Irish lads in action are the divil’s boys for fighting.
CHORUS: They’ll fight for Uncle Sam,
He’ll lade us on to glory, O!,
He’ll lade us on to glory, O!
To save the Stripes and Stars.
Och, sure, we never will give in, in any sort of manner,
Until the South comes back again, beneath the Starry-Banner:
And if John Bull should interfere, he’d suffer for it truly;
For, soon the Irish Volunteers would give him Ballyhooly.
CHORUS: Oh! they’ll fight for Uncle Sam,
He’ll lade us on to glory, O!,
He’ll lade us on to glory, O!
To save the Stripes and Stars.
And now before I ind my song, this free advice I’ll tender;
We soon will use the Rebels up, and make them all surrender,
And, once again, the Stars and Stripes will to the breeze be swellin’,
If Uncle Abe will give us back our darling boy McClellan.
CHORUS: Oh! we’ll follow little Mac,
He’ll lade us on to glory, O!,
He’ll lade us on to glory, O!
To save the Stripes and Stars.
3/26/2004
"I think we're just about all agreed that Lincoln and Speed did not have a homosexual relationship," says Donald.
That Georgia curriculum that would start U.S. history with Reconstruction is under attack by local college professors.
Received a "who are you?" kind of email yesterday. This is not something that has come up before.
I am a member of the reading and bookbuying public.
Don't work in teaching or publishing, not affiliated with a university, not a member of any preservation group, re-enactor unit, restoration project, conservancy, board of directors or advisors, nor lineage society.
Once had a boss who would draft some piece of marketing text and pass it around for comments and suggestions. He would always remark (curiously), "I want you to play the role of outraged reader."
Given the forlorn state of Civil War publishing today, I play the role of the outraged reader.
I am a member of the reading and bookbuying public.
Don't work in teaching or publishing, not affiliated with a university, not a member of any preservation group, re-enactor unit, restoration project, conservancy, board of directors or advisors, nor lineage society.
Once had a boss who would draft some piece of marketing text and pass it around for comments and suggestions. He would always remark (curiously), "I want you to play the role of outraged reader."
Given the forlorn state of Civil War publishing today, I play the role of the outraged reader.
3/25/2004
Prince John Magruder's Peninsula HQ at Lee Hall is getting some new neighbors. It's a tragedy in three acts.
ACT I.
City officials want hundreds of millions of dollars worth of construction around two historic attractions -- Endview Plantation and Lee Hall Mansion -- to boost real-estate tax revenue and to offer higher-income families bigger, newer houses that are hard to find here.
Supporters say the city should move while interest rates are low and developers are interested.
"These conditions will not last forever," said Allen Jones, chairman of the city's Economic Development Authority. "Business is cyclical. We must act now."
ACT II
Development opponents, who spoke during a night meeting, were disappointed that council members had decided in the afternoon to end talk of preserving the land as open space.
"It was a done deal before we came here," said resident Ray Steveson, a Civil War re-enactor.
ACT III
Each developer has spent more than $100,000 to this point, Frank said. Vice Mayor Charles Allen considers that kind of spending a flaw. Allen had wanted the city to hire experts to draft its own plan. He said that plan would have been defined foremost by the city's interests, not the developer's profits.
"There's no turning back when you have people spending this kind of money," Allen said. "We have to pick somebody because of the way this process has gone about.
ACT I.
City officials want hundreds of millions of dollars worth of construction around two historic attractions -- Endview Plantation and Lee Hall Mansion -- to boost real-estate tax revenue and to offer higher-income families bigger, newer houses that are hard to find here.
Supporters say the city should move while interest rates are low and developers are interested.
"These conditions will not last forever," said Allen Jones, chairman of the city's Economic Development Authority. "Business is cyclical. We must act now."
ACT II
Development opponents, who spoke during a night meeting, were disappointed that council members had decided in the afternoon to end talk of preserving the land as open space.
"It was a done deal before we came here," said resident Ray Steveson, a Civil War re-enactor.
ACT III
Each developer has spent more than $100,000 to this point, Frank said. Vice Mayor Charles Allen considers that kind of spending a flaw. Allen had wanted the city to hire experts to draft its own plan. He said that plan would have been defined foremost by the city's interests, not the developer's profits.
"There's no turning back when you have people spending this kind of money," Allen said. "We have to pick somebody because of the way this process has gone about.
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