Corrections & Reflections

Well before January gets away from me I thought I should make my first post for 2010.  I did write the draft for a post on the scintillating subject of css.  (computer coding language).  It was supposed to be funny.  It wasn't.  So to kick off the new year I'll toot my own horn.  This is for those of you who are not facebook friends, or familiar with my website, or my yahoo group for 13th Mass descendants, (because I already announced this to them). The current issue of America's Civil War has my first published article within its pages; "The Three Ponies of Company B."

And, since blogging is new to me, I thought it would be a good time to make some minor corrections to past posts here at my blog; along with some thoughts for future posts.  On the "McDowell" post I wrote he ordered Colonel G. K. Warren's brigade north of the Warrenton Turnpike on August 30, 1862, thus committing one of the most egregious tactical errors of the battle of 2nd Bull Run.  That sentence itself is an egregious error.  It was Brigadier General Reynold's division that was ordered north of the turnpike.  Warren's small brigade was left behind and cut up by the attacking Confederates.  I've since corrected the mistake !

Next up; when I sited author Larry Tagg's excellent book "The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln" on the same post about McDowell, Veronica (or Kim using Veronica's email) of Savas-Beatie Publishing commented on my post and left a link to their site.  The link wasn't live.  (Blogger has a terrible html post editor). So if you want more information about the book or it's author here is the link:

http://www.savasbeatie.com/results.html

Third, regarding the same post, reader Will Hickock wrote me and pointed out I had made an error regarding General McDowell's hat. (Maybe I should just remove that post) I appreciate the comment as I don't want to spread mis-information.  The correction is noted in the comments for that post, but for the record, I thought McDowell's tall kepi was the notorious 'hat' he wore, but in fact it was something quite different:

I found this reference to McDowell's hat in "Return to Bull Run" by John J. Hennessy, p.7-8:  "Some men even questioned Mcdowell's loyalty, suggesting that the prominent hat he wore, "which looked like an esqimaux canoe on his head, wrong side up," served as a covert signal to the enemy that he was present and "all was well." Such assertions were ridiculous,but the fact remained that he was disliked and largely mistrusted." A footnote adds "For debate over McDowell's obnoxious hat see the National Tribune, issues of November 12, 1891, March 31, 1892 2nd April 14, 1892.

I haven't found the National Tribune articles yet so maybe that's a post for another day.

I think that wraps up the corrections.  I have lots of new ideas for future posts, including biographies of certain members of the 13th Mass with some interesting stories, and perhaps comments on the circulars, the great resource where a lot of my material comes from. I have a "Mother's Day post in mind, one for Halloween, and posts for Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Antietam and maybe even Fredericksburg.  I also plan to talk a bit more about my particular research for the website.  If anyone has suggestions I'll accept those too if reasonable.  And of course stay tuned for the css post ! (That is if I can make it funny)  ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz...