After the Fire

The smell of smoke still hangs over the battlefield. It’s been a week since Park Service personnel have done their prescribed burn at Spotsylvania’s Bloody Angle, and I’ve come out to see the scorched landscape for myself. I’m not sure what I expected to see, but I am surprised by how the land has already […]

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Shiloh’s 150th

With the 150th anniversary of Shiloh coming up, we thought you might want to check out the great slate of events the park is planning. Click here for more details.

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Fire at the Bloody Angle Revisited

Earlier this month, I helped with a prescribed burn at Spotsylvania’s Bloody Angle.

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In Praise of Preservationists

Most of the time, we think of preservationist “out in the trenches,” doing the front-line work to save dirt and grass and history. On Tuesday, at least, when I had the good pleasure of spending some time with folks from the Central Virginia Battlefield Trust (CVBT) and the Civil War Trust (CWT), they were tucked in their […]

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Clear Fields of Fire

Malvern Hill Richmond National Battlefield Tuesday, March 27, 2012

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Bright Afternoon at the Bloody Angle

The Bloody Angle Spotsylvania Court House Sunday, March 25, 2012

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“He Gave Ol’ Abe a Fearsome Fright”: The First Battle of Kernstown

The lyric above, taken from a 2nd South Carolina String Band song fittingly describes the Battle of Kernstown on March 23, 1862. Acting on an erroneous report, Confederate General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson attacked what he thought was an outnumbered Union rearguard approximately five miles below Winchester, Virginia. This rearguard, commanded by Colonel Nathan Kimball, […]

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Lee and Jackson in the National Cathedral

The technicolor hush that fills the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. seems both vibrant and subdued. I don’t know how quiet can be so colorful. The silence beams down from the massive stained glass windows overhead, but the effect on me, standing on the cathedral floor, feels more like the soft flutter of autumn leaves. […]

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A Foggy Morning at Ellwood

Ellwood, Wilderness National Battlefield

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