Category Archives: Civil War

Grant won, but Stonewall got the Coke ad

Robert Moore, at Cenantua’s Blog has it: “The victor gets to write the history…” True, but in the case of the Civil War, he didn’t get the product endorsements or the residuals. Poor Uncle Billy Sherman. Jesus wept.

Another “historian” bites the dust

Add Dr. Thomas Lowry’s name to the pantheon of historian shame that includes plagiarist Stephen Ambrose and Vietnam combat-phony Joseph Ellis. Lowry is accused by the National Archives of admitting that he used a fountain pen to vandalize a document written by President Lincoln.

Lowry, whose forgery went undiscovered for fourteen years and even inspired Washington tour guides to repeat it to unknowing tourists, signed a confession to his vandalism, according to the National Archives which has banned his person from their halls henceforth. He is now denying all in the pages of the WaPo. How convenient.

I bring this up partly because Vietnam combat-phonies like Ellis really anger me. They damaged all of us genuine combat veterans for most of our post-war adult lives by “confessing” to dishonorable things. Tarring us with their liar’s brush. Fortunately for the “profession,” Lowry, is only an independent Civil War historian. His doctorate is medical. He’s a psychiatrist. Go figure that out if you can.

Lost Rebel

unidentifiedcssoldierIt’s hard for me to believe that this young Rebel in his mounted rifles Hardee hat could be unidentified, even after all these years. He’s a handsome fellow and his pose, on a simple chair without any painted background and minus the usual bellicose weaponry, is thoughtful and loving. Somebody’s Darling, no doubt. Yet, somehow, his descendants lost, or even worse sold, this likeness of him. And today no one seems to know who he was. R.I.P.

Via Dead Confederates.

Kindle sales hoppin’

I don’t know why nine folks decided on Veterans Day to buy a Kindle copy of my 2006 short story collection Leaving The Alamo, Texas Stories After Vietnam, but I’m grateful. Certainly was an appropriate time to do it. That makes eleven of them sold in the past six weeks.

Meanwhile three Kindle copies of my 2010 novel Knoxville 1863 have been sold in the past two weeks, making seven altogether in the aforementioned six week period. I attribute that to the success of my blog about the novel. Paperback sales? Far behind. I do believe ebooks are the future. Cheaper, easier to buy, quicker to receive.

The Sultana

sultanaDeath ship leaving port overloaded with 2,400 former Union prisoners -of-war and other Union soldiers leaving the army behind and heading home. Until the riverboat’s boiler exploded and she burned to the waterline killing up to seventy-five percent of them in the greatest maritime disaster in U.S. history.

Yay Us Day

My four years of Army service in the late 60s, including a year in Vietnam. My late father’s flying in World War II and his Air Force career thereafter, and Mr. Boy’s late maternal grandfather who flew in Vietnam in a Navy career.

My nephew’s current service as a pilot-rated Navy officer. A Mississippi cousin-by-marriage who recently left the Army. My late great uncle from Dallas whose Navy unit landed on Omaha Beach on the first day, and his nephew who was there on the second day with the Army.

Another late great uncle from Mississippi who drove Army ammunition trucks in World War I, and a cousin who served in the Spanish-American war, though his unit never left its training camp in Houston.

Before that there was family who fought for the Confederacy, in the Mexican War, the Texas Revolution, the War of 1812, and in the American Revolution: Thomas Farrar, a lieutenant colonel in the South Carolina “line” of the Continental Army, and Claudius Pegues, Jr., a captain in the South Carolina militia, who died young from a combat wound.

Veterans all.

UPDATE:  Mr. B.’s 5th grade teacher had a nice idea today for homework: let the kids practice their writing skills by writing thank-you letters to veterans. He’s not sure where they will be sent. He’ll find that out tomorrow.

6th U.S. Cavalry

6CavRegtCOAWorking a future post on my knoxville1863 blog I was tickled to find out that Brig. Gen. William P. Sanders, for whom Knoxville’s Fort Sanders was named, was a veteran of the 6th U.S. Cavalry Regiment in the Virginia Peninsula Campaign and at Antietam/Sharpsburg.

I was a lieutenant-platoon commander in the 6th’s descendant unit, the 6th Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Meade, Maryland, in 1968-69.

We were then rumored to be headed to Vietnam to replace the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, though, in fact, most of our troops were combat veteran returnees at a time when a one-year combat tour was all that was required.

Instead, we spent most of our time training for riot control in those days of race riots, though we didn’t have to control any. Instead we guarded President Nixon’s inaugural ceremonies. The unicorn is the 6th’s shoulder patch and coat of arms.