Spring Schedule

I will be speak­ing at a Civil War sem­i­nar at Long­wood Col­lege, VA, on March 3, 2012. I am look­ing at a cou­ple of other events, and post them here when confirmed.

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Awards

Fol­low this link to a press release announc­ing two awards recently given to me, OK, really to Car­man, but he is dead. :-)

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hagerstowncc.edu%2Fnews-events%2F110622%2Fhcc-professor-wins-two-awards-civil-war-work&h=50b7f

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Col. William A. Christian

As some of you may know, Car­man only very obliquely men­tioned Christian’s deser­tion as his brigade was going into action. Here is a sam­pling of the descrip­tions from men in the brigade:
George Wat­son, 90th PA said he “heard Chris­t­ian say ‘He had a per­fect hor­ror of these shell’ and shortly after he passed to the rear.” Lt. W.H. Hol­stead, 26th NY, remem­bered “…as shells burst over our heads … he (Chris­t­ian) would duck or dodge his head and go crouch­ing along. He soo resigned on account of this.“
William Gif­ford, also of the 26th NY described “Col. Chris­t­ian, who com­manded the 26th “showed the white feather, and when we received the first fire he turned and fled to the rear and almost caused a stam­pede among troops in the rear.” Per­haps the most col­or­ful is John Vau­tier, 88th PA, who wrote this; “…when the fire got very hot he (Chris­t­ian) ‘walked span­ish;’ cut and ran, an exam­ple that for­tu­nately was not fol­lowed by the brigade.” Yet Car­man only says the shelling “demor­al­ized some senior offi­cers of the brigade.” Again, is he being too kind, or rec­og­niz­ing that every­one in com­bat has a break­ing point? Interesting.

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Book Signing

I will be in Harpers Ferry next Sun­day, April 17, sign­ing books at the Author’s tent in the lower town. If you’re in the area, stop by!

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McClellan at the front

A Sgt. in the 4th Penna. Reserves, John Bur­nett, men­tions he was posted on the left of his divi­sion as they marched through Mid­dlekauf Farm, just north of Joseph Poffenberger’s farm on Sept. 16. He noted that a lone Con­fed­er­ate sol­deir emerged from the Mid­dlekauf house and was cap­tured. He men­tioned the skir­mish with Hood’s divi­sion in progress, and tear­ing down fences, with Mid­dlekauf him­self assist­ing. Most inter­est­ing is that in three let­ters he insists he saw McClel­lan at this time, rid­ing near the Mid­dlekauf farm with a few aides. What is inter­est­ing is that he says he has never seen McClellan’s book, and every­thing he has read says McClel­lan never crossed the creek until Sept. 18, but he is sure he saw McClel­lan on Sept. 16 near the front dur­ing the fight­ing. Interesting??!!

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  • Coming May 15, 2010

    volume 1 cover

    Reserve Vol­ume 1: South Moun­tain with the Publisher.

    • Hard­cover: 624 pages
    • Pub­lisher: Savas Beatie (May 2010)
    • Lan­guage: English
    • ISBN-13: 978–1932714814