As you are probably aware, I am not shy about sharing my opinions about things- realizing that opinions are like sphincters and everyone has at least one of them. I rose at the farm today, a bit late, since I was beat from cutting the pastures and lawn and trimming the brush back from the […]

This life thing is kind of ephemeral, you know? We all got dragged into cyber hell yesterday, the political circus, all that. Time to carpe diem- seize it with both hands and wring all the life out of it while we can. But for all that, there are some things that seem to transcend it […]

Friday was a big day at the Pentagon’s JCS J-2 Spaces, and I thought I would pass this along. I want to ensure that you know that one of our best is facing the fight of his life, and as he always does, he is taking it with upbeat optimism. It was the occasion of […]

(Press Secretary Josh Earnest does damage control on the OPM data breech that left a lot us breeched). I would have returned to writing about the 72nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry wandering around Tennessee and Mississippi a century and a half ago this morning. It is much safer back there, but my attention was drawn to […]

“Can see the dead wagon loaded up with twenty or thirty bodies at a time, two lengths, just like four foot wood is loaded on to a wagon at the North, and away they go to the grave yard on a trot. Perhaps one or two will fall off and get run over. No attention […]

(Map of the encounter between the forces of Nathan Bedford Forrest and Samuel Davis Sturgis at Brice’s Crossroads, MS, on 10 June 1864. The position of the 72nd OVI is along the line of retreat at the upper left center. Map Civil War Preservation Trust). I don’t necessarily disbelieve in co-incidence- but the battle that […]

(Union Troops destroying railroad track by heating and bending them around trees. They became known as “Sherman’s Neckties” during the destruction. Image Library of Congress). Oh, man, this could be dry as hell, but it is required for the set-up for what happened to GG Grandfather and the 72nd OVI. So, bear with me. What […]

(Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Library of Congress). We will get to the strategic picture on the progress of the Union Anaconda squeezing the Confederacy tomorrow, since I need to introduce you to a figure of some note in this tale of the future brother-in-laws. His name is Forrest, Nathan Bedford Forrest, in full, and […]

(Five unidentified prisoners of war in Confederate uniforms in front of their barracks at Camp Douglas Prison, Chicago, Illinois. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress). We are going to have to spend a minute on the social issues that went along with the Civil War. I would rather contemplate the remarkable Triple Crown win […]

I was sitting with Barrister Jerry at Willow last night, along with the usual suspects aligned in the usual places at the bar. I asked him if he had heard about the major data breech at the Office of Personnel Management, better known in these parts as OPM. For purposes of efficiency, they share their […]