I have in my desk drawer a set of dog tags Will gave me when he deployed. I wore them all the time he was gone. He had his own set he wore. During the Civil War, there was no standard identification system and many soldiers worried they would not be identified or their families…

This image from the Library of Congress titled, “War views. No. 1501, Camp life, Army of the Potomac – writing to friends at home” shows a soldier in the foreground doing some mending. This is a patriotic Confederate housewife with three different Confederate flags. Someone certainly put a lot of love into this one. The…

Well, real life and a book nearing completion got in the way, but I’m going to try to get back on track if I can. I’m not sure I can finish as the book beckons and it’s taking priority. At the beginning of the Civil War, the south was woefully unprepared. The governor of Louisiana…

Military mascots are nothing new and the Civil war certainly had its share of them. Dick the sheep was adopted by the 2nd Rhode Island. The men were quite fond of Dick and taught him all manner of tricks, but upon reaching Washington they had to make a painful decision. “We took our pet sheep…

You thought I forgot, didn’t you? Oh, no, mon ami. Surprisingly enough, the English had been keeping a close eye on American shipbuilders for a while. In the mid-1850’s they were particularly scouting out two designers named James and George Steers of the  George Steers and Co. There was a traditional design to yachts called…

Gen. Johnston                                                  Gen. Wallace It was a year into the Civil War. Sumter had been fired on April 12, 1861, the first major battle at Manassas had culminated in an astonishing and undignified rout of Union forces. If anyone was under the still under the assumption it was going to be a ninety-day unpleasantly, those…