FOR HEADLINE, SEE BELOW

It is shocking to me to see what has happened to headline writers. Even today, where the web is without the space limitations we had back in the day when newspaper editors had to make things fit, headline writers still can't get things right.

Hurricane Fay brushed some islands and began weakening over the weekend. It was downgraded to a tropical storm and drifted away from land, its power lessening as it went. So the most obvious headline of the year sat waiting...and went unused.

The headline should have read:

FAY DONE, AWAY

Remember you saw it here first.

It's the people, stupid

                Your loyal blogger recently finished Susannah Ural’s excellent book, “Don’t Hurry Me Down to Hades,” an outstanding research piece about the impact of war on the lives of people living during the Civil War era.

          The book is very good but this is not a book review. Perhaps this is a reflection prompted by reading the book.

          The Civil War is a people story. All wars are the same in that respect. In the case of the War Between the States, the people are fascinating. Ural’s book is a classic example of that simple fact.

          When we forget that it was people who had to fight the war or otherwise live through the era, we forget what really mattered: People were freed from enslavement because of the war. People fought, bled and died on the battlefields. People died of disease in the army. People had to rebuild shattered lives and live with battered minds and bodies after the war. People lost loved ones in the fighting and many people lost their livelihoods.

          Of course, it was people who started the war and people who went to war eagerly, expecting a short war with plenty of glory to go around.

          This writer took a history class in college a few decades ago. Two fellow students, big fans of computerized war games (such as they were at the time), approached the professor after a lecture and gleefully explained how they had fought the same battle in their game that the professor lectured about that day.

          The losing general, they explained to the professor, could have won the day by making some sort of movement. “He’d have only lost a few thousand more men,” the war gamers said.

          A few thousand lives, thought yours truly. A few thousand lives.

          Your loyal blogger is fond of studying the battlefield. What happened? Who made the key decision? Why was the decision reached? And how did those men, the ordinary grunts, keep moving in the face of mortal danger?

          When you have the answers to those questions, you have a story about people. If you miss that central fact, then you simply don’t understand history.

          And you’ll never learn from it.

 

          Thanks for reading.

JEB Stuart: Lots to think about

          Eric J. Wittenberg and J. David Petruzzi produced a book about JEB Stuart’s contribution to the battle of Gettysburg titled, Plenty of blame to go around, Jeb Stuart’s controversial ride to Gettysburg.

          There will be no discussion here of Wittenberg and Petruzzi’s conclusions about Stuart’s ride around and sometimes into the Union Army in late June/early July of 1863. Interested readers of this blog can read the book themselves and reach their own conclusions. The book was published by Savas Beatie.

          The book does give a reader plenty to think about as it covers Stuart’s ride and the difficulties his cavalry encountered along the way. If you begin reading with a negative opinion of Stuart or just think poorly of the decision to go marauding at the beginning of Lee’s invasion of the North, you’ll find plenty of ammunition in this book.

          If you lean toward a more positive opinion of Stuart’s ride, you’ll find plenty of chances to resupply your ammo, too.

          This book is more about the controversy than it is the event itself, which makes it a fun read. Bring your opinion with you when you begin to read this book. Keep it right by your side.

          The decisions made by Confederate leadership at Gettysburg have been debated for 151 years now. There is plenty to debate. However, whether you revere the memory of Confederate commander Robert E. Lee or dismiss him a defender of slavery, one thing is clear: The fight at Gettysburg was not his finest military performance.

          Allowing Stuart to attempt a ride around the Union army at a time when Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was committed to an invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania seems foolish today. Depending upon Stuart to stay in contact with the main Confederate force appears to be a colossal mistake today.

          And separating his army from the main portion of its cavalry arm at a time when he was leading his army into an all-or-nothing invasion of largely unknown territory? Hummmmm.

          Discussions of Stuart’s failure to be in the Gettysburg area on June 30 when his troopers were really needed must start with the decision to send him on a rompish ride to begin with and that permission came from Lee.

          Before you can opine that Stuart failed Lee, you must agree that Lee failed himself by not restraining Stuart’s desire for a ride around the Union army.

 

          Thanks for reading.

The Speedyleeway list of Civil War books

          Typically, this blogger looks for ways to reference yours truly without using the word I. Writers never want to be accused of having an ‘I’ problem. It is a challenge when writing something as potentially personal as a blog to avoid using the first person.

 

          Challenges, they say, help writers and this writer needs all the help he can get.

          So it is with an abundance of joy that I disregard the normal practice for this specific blog. I want to list my 10 favorite Civil War books.

          Before I do so, be warned that there are lots of Civil War books I have not read yet. There are a very few that I wish I had not read. There are some sitting around the house waiting to be read.

          There are no works of fiction on my list. Please feel free to put fiction on your list of Civil War faves, but my list is non-fiction works only.

          There is an Honorable Mention honoree: The Truth About Chickamauga by Archibald Gracie. The writing style makes this one difficult to read in spots, but it is a research classic. Be warned: Some experts refute some of Gracie’s conclusions.

          My list:

10. The Library of Congress Civil War Desk Reference. There are several editors. I use it as a reference. Pretty smart, huh?

9. National Geographic Atlas of the Civil War, Neil Kagan and Stephen G. Hyslop.

8. Battle Cry of Freedom, James McPherson. This is a classic among Civil War books. Everyone should read it, if for no other reason than the understanding one can glean from it about our society.

7. After the War, David Hardin. An elegant look at the lives of some of the most interesting personalities of the war’s era.

6. Mosby’s Memoirs, John. S. Mosby. Obviously the battlefield information is engaging, but his post-war career and his relationship with U.S. Grant are fascinating.

5. Stand Fast Ye Boys From Maine, Thomas A. Desjardin. Just a well-written book about the Union’s far left on Little Round Top.

4. The Chickamauga Campaign, edited by Steven E. Woodworth. This is actually a compilation of papers about Chickamauga and Chattanooga. One very interesting paper is Bull of the Woods? about James Longstreet. An outstanding essay in a group of excellent papers.

3. Decisions at Gettysburg, Matt Spruill. For me, this book stands above others written about the controversies at Gettysburg. A very enjoyable read.

First runner up: Chancellorsville, Stephen W. Sears. This book gets a wow. Obviously, the story is well told. The writing is outstanding. This is a neat, neat work on an important battle. This was a fight full of interesting characters that were important in the narrative of the war. I’ve never been to Chancellorsville, but that is not a handicap when reading this excellent book.

1, 2: Yep, a tie. I cheated. First among equals is Carol Reardon’s brilliant work, Pickett’s Charge in history and memory. The title tells you the subject matter but it can’t give you a feel for the excellence of the writing nor the fascinating way the research is presented. Read this book.

The next equal is Gettysburg: A test of courage, by Noah Andre Trudeau. Think you know Gettysburg? Read this one, which includes plenty of maps with approximate time notations. Gettysburg was the Civil War’s battle royal and Trudeau gives it the royal treatment, a tremendous work.

The statisticians among you have counted and discovered 11 books on the list of 10. That’s because I now live in Big Ten country, where there are 14 member schools. Well, the idea is the important thing, right?

Thanks for reading.

 

The Toledo Mud Hens

          Remember the old television show MASH? The Corporal Klinger character’s back story was that he was from Toledo and he loved the Toledo Mud Hens minor league baseball team.

          If you grew up in California, you didn’t know for sure whether the Mud Hens existed. A script from the make believe world of sitcom TV is not generally a credible source of accuracy.

          Minor league baseball was a big part of the sporting landscape in California before the Dodgers ever made it west. No mystery there. But who knew if the Mud Hens really existed?

          Turns out they do. The Mud Hens are the Triple A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers and Thursday they played the Columbus Clippers, an affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. Toledo won 2-1, a high-quality, professional baseball game that was completed in roughly two hours, 25 minutes. There were no television timeouts, not many pitching changes and no manager replay challenges.

They just played baseball.

Well, okay. Between innings there were all kinds of activities. They threw balls into the grandstand, had contests for kids, had KissCam on the scoreboard and had mascots running around making people happy.

Fifth-Third Park in Toledo seats 9,806 and the game with the Clippers was Toledo’s 14^th sellout of the year. Simply put, the people of Toledo like their Mud Hens.

Most of the Mud Hens fans stayed after the game to watch the huge fireworks display, so if you scooted out you could watch the fireworks from the parking lot and still beat the traffic to the highway. Call that California Training.

A single seat in row H of section 106 puts you three rows behind the home dugout and cost $10. There is a charge if you call and order on the phone with a credit card, but when you do that, you speak to an actual person who helps you find the seat you want. This is a very helpful organization.

Parking directly across the street costs $10, but you can park a block away for $5. Two hot dogs, a large soda and a bag of peanuts is a package deal that costs $7. Programs are free and score cards are free. If you happen to forget a pencil or pen, that’ll cost less than $2.

The entire evening cost $32 and could be cheaper by parking a block away and remembering a pen or pencil.

The park opens at 5:30 p.m., food sales start at 6 and the game starts at 7. You can watch batting practice, although you probably will not be able to watch infield practice.

This is a high-quality, family oriented, fun place to be. Try it, you’ll love it.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Parting shot at Gettysburg

 

          The final two days at Gettysburg were spent wandering the battlefield, Nikon in hand.

          This year the mystery that had been Culp’s Hill became a great deal clearer (to one particular person) and the Nikon availed itself to recording the areas of the Hill where your favorite blogger finally has a working understanding of the fighting.

          After walking in the dark for six years, a small spec of light finally made itself visible to this human’s eyes. One of the images here came from Culp’s Hill, while others came from elsewhere.

          No exaggeration here: It was a great deal more satisfying to walk on the Hill with the ability to record an image and know what happened in the pictured location. Yes, the weather was miserably hot and humid. Yes, the Hill was a steep climb in places. But understanding the Hill’s story made all the physical effort more worthwhile.

          And, truth be told, that basic understanding of the Hill’s unique place in the Gettysburg story could not have happened for this blogger were it not for the Civil War Institute and the tours planned for Gettysburg each year.

          You can laugh at this next part. Mrs. Leeway sure did.

          The remnants of the trenches dug by the Federal defenders of Culp’s Hill evaded this blogger for six years. It was one of those situations where the forest was hard to see because all the trees were in the way. Of course, it helps to look in the right place if you want to see something.



Look where the ground slopes to the left
and look at the tree line. The trenchs
were on the spot where the ground seems
to level out.

         

Tour guide: You can see what remains of the Union trenches right here.

          Blogger (peering closely in the indicated direction): Really? Where?

          Tour guide: You’re standing on one.

      

 

         The other images came from locations around the battlefield and are offered as a mini tour for the reader.

          Some of the images here were captured as part of a project. Others are locations seen in this blog space before, but this time in an attempt to capture a fresh viewpoint. One thing Gettysburg does not lack is interesting opportunities for the camera.

          The general idea for Speedyleeway Research Month was for your loyal blogger to research something every day or listen to an expert in a field each day during the month of June. Whether it was getting tips on ways to conduct more research or stumbling into something most of the world already knew about, this month was a success for Speedyleeway.

 

Look above the artillery piece. The tallest hill in the distance, to the right, is Round Top. To the left
you can see Little Round Top. The image was captured from the spot where General Lee met the troops
as they returned from Pickett's Charge on July 3, 1863.

Shot from the same spot as the previous image. The bigger bunch of trees to the right is the Copse of
Trees, the target of the Confederates charge on the final day at Gettysburg.

 

The flank marker for the 20th Maine. Look at the small
change across the top.

Memorial to the Irish
Brigade.

General Warren on
Little Round Top.

 

          There were a few days when yours truly had to put aside research and go to work. It seemed possible, even probable, that no research would be done. But, with the mental dexterity developed as a graduate from a great American university, the hurdle was overcome with a simple question: “Hey, what was the fastest Pro Stock run ever made here?”

          That, my friends, is research.

          Whether it is your own family tree or something to do with your favorite athletic team, this writer hopes you find something to research and that the result gives you joy.

          Thanks for reading and happy Speedyleeway Research Month!

2014 CWI: Final talks and tours

          Speedyleeway Research Month continued with the final days at the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College.

          Sunday opened with Keith Bohannon discussing Federal General William T. Sherman and his campaign for Atlanta. Bohannon highlighted the differences between Sherman and the Confederate commanders he faced, Joseph Johnston and John B. Hood. Bohannon explained that Sherman had the support of his military superiors and his civilian superior, which Johnston did not. Hood had the support of the Confederate civilian leadership but he really faced an impossible situation.

          Bohannon threw out a fact that your loyal blogger did not know, that the set from the film The Wizard of Oz was burned during the filming of Gone with the Wind.

          Emmanuel Dabney delivered a terrific address about the US Colored Troops at the Battle of the Crater. Union soldiers dug a mine under the Confederate lines with the idea of using a massive explosion underground to open up a gap in the Confed defenses. Dabney talked about the terrible massacre during that engagement and said white US soldiers killed their African American comrades when it became obvious the attack was a failure.

          Your favorite blogger talked to Dabney later on during the day. He’s a great young guy and he’s very passionate about history.

          Next came a series of breakout sessions and yours truly took in Jonathan Noyalas’ outstanding presentation about the Battle of Cedar Creek in one of the really snazzy classrooms at the College. The net result of this battle was the end of Jubal Early’s campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. Noyalas took us through this event very nicely.

          Then it was back to the main meeting room for Crystal Feimster’s address about the rape and mutiny at Fort Jackson, Louisiana. The event, as detailed by Feimster, was particularly ugly. Federal officers raped a group of African American women who worked in the camp laundry. Six of the guilty officers were dismissed from the Army but President Lincoln revoked the dismissals and the officers returned to the same regiment they’d been dismissed from.

           K. Stephen Prince discussed The Burnt District: Southern Ruins and the Problem of Reconstruction. Photographs of the ruined cities in the South, Prince told us, generated a great deal of intellectual commentating in the immediate post- war period. We now term the discussions of the period Ruin Talk. Northerners saw the ruins of the South as 1) visions of the guilty South, 2) the end of what the South had been before the war and 3) the South reborn. The ruins of the South were frequently compared with the ruins of Pompeii, according to Prince, but Ruin Talk ended at the end of 1865.

          Prince’s address gave your loyal blogger the idea that there is a strong similarity between the still images of post-Civil War Southern United States and the newsreel visions of Japan after the Second World War. In both cases, photography brought home the brutality of armed conflict. Cultural and economic changes were demanded by the winners in both instances. We could argue about which rehab project worked best.

          Barton A. Myers gave us a great talk, Controlling the Chaos: The Guerrilla Wars of 1864. There were guerrilla fighters in every Confederate state, according to Myers, but the Confederate States government enacted a law making it legal. But the groups probably hurt the Confederate war effort more than they helped. Guerrillas hurt Confederate command and control of the war effort for one thing and Myers added that many of the darkest hours of the war involved guerrilla forces.

          Susannah Ural talked about the incidents where the Texans fighting under John B. Hood refused to go into attack until Robert E. Lee, who seemed intent upon personally leading them from the front, got out of the way. The Texas Brigade was, by 1864, among the best fighting units on either side of the war and Lee frequently counted on them to perform the most difficult tasks.

          One of the great opportunities offered by the CWI is the dine-in program where members of the Institute faculty have dinner with a small number of attendees. This year, yours truly and a few others had dinner with Ural. We discussed portions of Ural’s book, Don’t Hurry Me Down to Hades and what reactions we had to the selections. It was interesting to share ideas in such a comfortable setting with a cross section of CWI attendees and one of the leading researchers and authors in the Civil War field.

          Two tours were part of the CWI experience for this attendee. Brooks Simpson led a group of us to the Wilderness and Spotsylvania battlefields. Both locations have excellent remnants of Civil War trenches. Yours truly had never before visited either location. It was interesting to see the tangled woods of the Wilderness and realize that the area was equally difficult to pass through at the time of the battle. It was exciting for this writer to stand in the Mule Shoe salient of the Spotsylvania battlefield.

Simpson is an outstanding professor and author. It became obvious that he is also a terrific tour guide. Your loyal blogger is now reading his book, Let Us Have Peace about U.S. Grant during the period immediately before and after the end of the war.

The second tour was at the Culp’s Hill positions at Gettysburg. This tour was conducted by Jennifer Murray and Murray did an excellent job. It was the first time your loyal blogger began to understand the fighting on that key hill. Civil War historians ignore Culp’s Hill, for reasons that make little or no sense, despite the fact that it was the key to the Union defense for all three days of the fighting.

This was a terrific conference. The only bad thing is waiting for 360 more days for the next edition of the conference.

 

Thanks for reading and Happy Research Month!