Rooting for Kurt Busch

          Kurt Busch will try something this weekend that sounds impossible.

          He is scheduled to drive in the Indianapolis 500 Sunday morning and afternoon, then drive in the Coca Cola 600 in the late afternoon and evening. That’s one race in Indianapolis, Indiana and another in Concord, North Carolina, all in one day.

          If he completes both races, that’s 1,100 miles of competition.

          Three drivers have attempted the double in previous years and one has actually completed the entire distance. Any rain delay or spate of caution flags at Indy could ruin the entire effort.

          I wish Busch well and I want to tell you why.

          Kurt Busch raced in NASCAR’s Southwest Tour in 1998 and 1999, winning the Rookie of the Year in his first full season and the championship a year later. Before he was done with the awards banquet following his championship season with the Tour, Busch had signed a contract to race in NASCAR’s Truck Series. His talent was pretty obvious.

          I saw each of Kurt’s SWT races because I was the PR guy for the series back then. I came to know him a little bit and I liked him. Never had the first moment of trouble with Kurt Busch when we were both with the Tour and I still haven’t.

          Busch tried his hand a drag racing a few years ago, twice racing in the NHRA’s Pro Stock category at the Gatornationals. I worked both those events and every time I saw him, Kurt stopped, said hello and we shook hands. Same thing has happened when I’ve worked at a few NASCAR Cup races since he joined that Series.

 

           Kurt Busch gets along with people, in my experience. When I read about how Kurt has changed since he had trouble with the media and had to leave Roger Penske’s organization, how he has now repaired his image, I think back to the guy I worked with for two years.  

 

           Wow, can Kurt Busch drive a racecar. In the 15 years since we were both with the Southwest Tour, he has only gotten better. Remember when he won his Cup title on the final day of the season? A wheel broke off of his car during the race and he somehow managed to get that three-wheeled thing onto pit road without damaging the car, then got back out there and won the championship. Drivers don’t just do that.

          Kurt Busch is a combination of other-worldly talent and tremendous competitive spirit. That drive to win pushes him to the edge of his car’s potential, which is what happens with the great ones. And when a driver hangs it out that way on every lap, it isn’t easy to turn off all the internal mechanisms and become cool, calm and collected immediately after climbing out of the race car, even if things went well. It’s really hard to be cool and calm after a wreck or some kind of trouble on the track.

          Kurt Busch is a heckuva race car driver. I hope he does well this weekend. And I’ll be happy as hell to shake his hand the next time I see him.

 

          Thanks for reading.

Walking and reading without chewing gum

          The Horseshoe Ridge area of the Chickamauga National Military Park is a hilly location. It is a historically important piece of ground that was among the bloodiest positions in the entire American Civil War.

          Yours truly has devoted a large part of the last five years trying to understand

The view from near the top of
Hill 1 of Horseshoe Ridge
toward the Snodgrass buildings.

fully what happened along that pretty ridgeline on September 20, 1863 and on the sides of the hills which approach the ridge. Professional Civil War historians, no doubt, know a better way to do this. There is probably some slick academic method, some logical process the big-name pros use to study battlefield history and determine who did what, where they did it and when. You have to learn how sooner or later, too.

          These professional researchers know where to read about all the information they need for a given project. Many of these professionals are professors and they have assistants (read that students) who produce the needed information. These assistants, in turn, learn all the fancy research methods. The cool tricks.

          Yours truly does not know the fancy tricks, the ins and outs of academia, the time-saving procedures.

          I have to do it the hard way. First, I make copies of the material pertinent to the mysteries I want to solve. I insert each sheet into a plastic page protector and put the covers in a small notebook. I carry the notebook in the field and I read as I walk.

          I don’t try to chew gum at the same time.

          This week found your loyal blogger at Horseshoe Ridge, walking up and down the hills, notebook in hand. It is instructive to read the post-battle reports and letters from soldiers while walking the grounds.

The gap between Hill 1 (to the right) and Hill 2 (left). Notice the low spot between them.

          For example, if you want to determine approximately where a specific battalion went up the hill, you compare all the reports. Did an officer describe the ground his battalion fought over in the regimental report? Did a soldier describe the ground in a letter home to his family?

          If so, try to match the description of the topography in the report to what you see. Maybe one report describes a gentle slope while another describes and steep climb. Photograph what you see for future comparisons.

          The hillsides of Horseshoe Ridge are not smooth and easily traversed. There are undulations and draws that can make it difficult to go up hill in a straight line. The only consistent thing is change.

For that reason, a 106-year-old letter from a veteran of the fighting to the son of another veteran is valuable to a modern day researcher because it describes the ground covered by the writer’s battalion and names the commanding officer of the battalion to his right.

So I read the letter over and over while walking the various pathways repeatedly. Once in a while I figure something out and, in an uncertain world, THAT is a blessed event.

          Reading that letter as you walk the Ridge makes you feel as though you have company on that hillside. You can almost hear the voice of the writer and it feels as though the boys are with you.

          It is a unique experience. I highly recommend it.

 

          Thanks for reading.

This is a just for fun image. The images available from here are interesting.

A few notes on life...

          A few notes from your loyal blogger:

          It turns out that I was wrong. Pop Tarts are not the equivalent to the military’s MREs.

          One of the causes of the dreaded shingles malady is stress. If you develop a case of shingles during the month of April, shouldn’t that be a tax dodge? I mean, what causes more stress than the tax season?

          I’ve seen a Dodge Ram. I’ve seen players from 31 different NFL teams dodge the Rams. I’ve even seen Chevys and Fords ram Dodges. And I have no idea what it all means.

          The NFL Network had a program ranking the quarterbacks of the 1970s. Fran Tarkenton, who never won the Super Bowl, was ranked above Terry Bradshaw, who won four in that decade. Huh?

          The NFL draft is about a week away. Newspapers and sports networks have devoted months to predicting what college players will be selected and football franchises have devoted thousands of man hours and millions of dollars preparing for their chance to select the next batch of stars. Keep in mind that these star college quarterbacks were drafted in past years: Giovanni Carmazzi, JaMarcus Russell and Ryan Leaf. These quarterbacks were not: Kurt Warner (won a Super Bowl, holds Super Bowl records) and Anthony Calvillo (professional football’s all-time passing yardage leader).

          No kidding, yours truly saw a product in the grocery store today named Joan of Arc Kidney Beans. You have to assume they were burned with the steak.

 

          Thanks for reading.

 

Best wishes for storm victims

          We all have our ups and downs. Sometimes it is fun to complain about day-to-day life and once in a while a witty comment is fun to write.

          There will be no complaints today, no attempts at humor. Instead, our best wishes to all Americans hit by heavy storms in the last few days.

          You are in our thoughts and prayers.

 

The military career of Reuben E. Davis

          His name was Reuben E. Davis and he was a Confederate soldier. His story is an interesting one which throws sand into the gears of the machinery that generates the idea that the Civil War was a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight among Confederates.

          Davis was born in Georgia, not too far from the Alabama line. He enlisted in Montgomery, Alabama in July of 1862 and became a soldier in the First Battalion of Hilliard’s Legion. The First Battalion was an infantry unit.

          Reuben Davis was a successful farmer. The records show his property was valued at $2,500 and his personal property was worth better than $600. That was a lot of money in pre-war America. Cards on the table, I do not know how many slaves Davis owned, if he owned any at all.

          Davis was 44 when he enlisted. He was married and had a large family. It appears that one of his sons also served in the Confederate Army.

          Why Davis elected to serve in an Alabama unit is not known. The Legion had a few Georgians on the rolls, so he was not alone in that regard. There is one note that your loyal blogger has seen that indicates Davis was a substitute for another soldier and that could have played a role in Davis not serving in an outfit from his home state.

          The Legion did not see battlefield action until it played a pivotal part in winning the battle of Chickamauga. Serving in a brigade commanded by General Archibald Gracie, Davis’ First Battalion was the first group of Gracie’s men to plant its regimental flag in the informal Union breastworks near the edge of the top of Horseshoe Ridge in the final hours of the fighting. The First suffered severe losses going up that hill and Davis was among those injured. He was wounded in the hand.

          After Chickamauga, the Legion was split into three new units, the 23^rd Battalion Alabama Sharpshooters, the 59^th Alabama Infantry Regiment and the 60^th Alabama Infantry Regiment. The three served together through the end of the war, surrendering at Appomattox with the remainder of the Army of Northern Virginia.

          Davis recovered from his Chickamauga wound and spent the remainder of the war in the 60^th Regiment, displaying tremendous resilience. He returned to his comrades in time to fight at Knoxville, and then was wounded again at Bean’s Station. He was present at Drewry’s Bluff but was wounded in the leg during the siege of Petersburg.

          Davis is listed as a prisoner of war briefly in April of 1865 and was taken to a hospital in Fort Monroe, Virginia in May of that year. He took the oath of allegiance and was discharged from the hospital July 16, 1865, three years and seven days after enlisting in the Confederate Army.

          But Davis had used up his strength. He got home to Heard County, Georgia and then died of a fever on August 19, 1865. While your loyal blogger has seen no written evidence of it, the supposition here is Davis probably died of an infection stemming from his leg wound suffered in the trenches at Petersburg.

          Let’s face it, Davis fought for a cause we find unacceptable today. But he gave it his all and, in the end, that was all he had.

          Thanks for reading.

What's in a nickname? Lots!

          Nicknames are an important part of life’s experience. We should give incidents and locations nicknames and, when possible to do so without hurting the feelings of the intended individual, we should give each other nicknames.

          For example, I call my podiatrist my Doc of the Walk.

          Mrs. Leeway (yep, that’s a nickname) doesn’t think Doc of the Walk is a fitting nickname. She feels it does not rhyme properly.

          Since I feel it is important to reemphasize my opinion on all matters upon which we disagree, I was moved to make up the following song (with apologies to Larry Collins and Alex Harvey, who wrote the country song, Delta Dawn):

 

Sore footed Dawn, what’s that weird boot you have on?

Did you see a walk Doc for your right foot pain?

And did I hear you say that you had X-Rays today?

To see why you have suddenly gone lame?

 

          Not too good, I agree, but I was making it up as I sang along to the benefit of my spouse and you get extra points under those conditions.

          But the topic here is nicknames.

          When I was calling basketball games for California Lutheran University, the men’s basketball team had an outstanding shooter whom I nicknamed The Master of Disaster because he was so good at scoring when games were close and time was running out. As a newspaperman, I once covered an Imperial Valley College star named Jessie Jackson and I shortened his name to Jax for headline use. I once nicknamed a co-worker at a radio station The Fox with the Golden Locks and another co-worker shortened that to Goldie Locks and the shortened version (even I had to admit the other guy’s version was better) stuck.

          The late broadcaster Chick Hearn was brilliant with nicknames. He used to call Hall of Fame guard Jerry West Mr. Clutch or Zeke from Cabin Creek and Hearn called a backup guard named Flynn Robinson, Instant Points, because Robinson started scoring as soon as he got in a game. Who would remember Robinson without the nickname?

          They called President Calvin Coolidge Silent Cal and other chief executives have been known by their initials, such as JFK and LBJ. President Eisenhower was Ike.

          Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli, who never actually existed, was The Fonz. Lieutenant Pete Mitchell, USN, was Maverick and his buddy, Lieutenant junior grade Nick Bradshaw, was Goose.

Anthony Joseph Foyt Jr., who is very much a real guy, is A.J. and Richard Petty is The King. Elzie Wylie Baker was Buck and his son, Elzie Wylie Baker Jr. is Buddy.

Even history uses nicknames. One day in 1881, a group of law enforcement officers walked down the street to disarm a bunch of cattle thieves. Things did not go well and the resultant violence went down in history as the Gunfight at OK Corral.

          So nicknames are all around you. Use them in good humor.

 

          Thanks for reading.

Losing by way of victory

                Life is uncertain. We can sit around and postulate, prognosticate and speculate all we want but life has a way of making fools of us.

          Ask the 1968 Baltimore Colts. They awoke on January 12, 1969 assuming they were about to win the Super Bowl and crown themselves world champions of professional football. Instead, the Colts played as though they had already been crowned and lost to the New York Jets, 16-7.

          The philosophic preparation above could only lead us to one place: The American Civil War battle of Chancellorsville, which ended on May 6, 1863.

          Confederate General Thomas Jackson, aka Stonewall Jackson, made a sweeping attack on the Union’s right flank late in the afternoon of May 2 and routed US General Joseph Hooker’s right. Jackson’s charge was a dramatic change in fortune, for both sides.

That successful flank attack might have spelled the beginning of the end for the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.    That evening, Jackson was mortally wounded by friendly fire as he scouted the possibility of pressing the attack into the night to keep the Union army on the run. Jackson’s command eventually devolved to J.E.B. Stuart, the cavalry commander, and Stuart did an excellent job the next day of continuing Jackson’s attack.

          That next day, May 3, 1863, Hooker, the commander of the Army of the Potomac, suffered a head injury when Confederate artillery fire smashed into a support column on the front porch of the house where Hooker stood. A chunk of wood exploded from the shattered column and hit Hooker in his head. Hooker probably suffered a concussion, based upon his behavior in the following hours. But Hooker did not pass command on to a subordinate and his army was without a functioning commander for the remaining hours that day.

          You could argue that the chunk of wood that stuck Hooker cost the Union the battle of Chancellorsville. Hooker, who did not want command of the Army of the Potomac in the first place, soon lost it. George Meade took over.

          Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia won at Chancellorsville by taking chances and then taking advantage of Jackson’s successful flank attack. But it also lost Jackson, a supremely talented leader. Stuart returned to his cavalry command after Chancellorsville and Lee was left with a choice between lesser commanders to replace Jackson.

           By now you readers are asking, “What’s the point?”

          Well, see, it’s like this: The fighting at Chancellorsville led to the fighting two months later at Gettysburg. Hooker was gone from the Army of the Potomac and Meade was steadfast in Hooker’s place at Gettysburg.

          We’ll never know how Hooker might have handled the struggle at Gettysburg. We’ll never even know how Hooker might have commanded the final days at Chancellorsville had he not been knocked out by a flying chunk of wood. But we do know what Meade did in Hooker’s place and what Meade did was win the war’s most famous fight.

          Lee’s decision, after consultation with Confederate President Jefferson Davis, to attack through Maryland and into Pennsylvania in June of 1863 was made in part due to his success at Chancellorsville. But things were different by then. Lee was probably overconfident at Gettysburg.

          Lee was now attacking Meade instead of Hooker and the Confederates were without Jackson.

          The victory at Chancellorsville might have cost the Confeds the war.

 

          Thanks for reading.