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Showing posts from January, 2015

The War in 1865: Part Two

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A map depicting the massive Union naval bombardment of Fort Fisher.  One of the many fine features of The Civil War Today app is that it is filled with period maps in high detail, an excellent historic resource to understand the geography, battle formations, and other important aspects of the war.  This particular map has been reduced to about 30% of its actual size. You can pinch and zoom easily inside the app to see the names of the individual ships and their respective lines of fire. Note: This is the second part of my continuing series on the end of the War Between the States as depicted in an iPad app, The Civil War Today . General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick was promoted to major general.  The Union continued to promote, remove, and change commanders and responsibilities in anticipation of the upcoming spring campaign season.  Kilpatrick was servicing under General William T. Sherman at the time and he would contribute to the forthcoming Carolinas Campaign. On the Confederate

Reading The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

When the season is darkest with a chill on the land I like to settle-in during a few evenings with maybe a nice cup of decaf coffee and read some H.P. Lovecraft .  My most recent fix was his posthumously published short novel, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward .  At about 50,000 words, this is the longest work authored by Lovecraft, yet it is only a first draft.  The author was displeased with the results and never attempted any revision nor sought publication.  Regardless, even in draft form, it remains one of his better works.   Though not as good as At the Mountains of Madness , this book nevertheless strikes me as very effective in the traditional Lovecraftian sense.  It is atmospheric, filled with historical depth that feigns authenticity, with bizarre and grotesque insinuations and occurrences that are incompletely explained and effectively suggested in order to engage the reader's imagination, thereby magnifying the intended horror with minimum description.  Lovecraft is the

The War in 1865: Part One

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A typical "issue" of The Civil War Today. Note: Back in 2011 one of the first apps I purchased for my iPad was The Civil War Today . Since then I have followed the course of the war, which occurred 150 years ago now, on a daily basis using this app.  This blog will feature posts on the final events of the American Civil War as detailed in this excellent history app .  Throughout this I will sometimes place my own thoughts, beyond the information contained in the app, in italics. By January 1865 the American Civil War was decided, but it was not yet quite over.  Great wars are often lost long before the fighting stops.  The North had won yet it is difficult to say exactly when the Southern Confederacy lost this War Between the States .  Southerners had endured and rallied from defeats at Shiloh , Antietam , Gettysburg , Vicksburg , Chattanooga , Atlanta , and Nashville . There were still organized armies in the field and there was still effective resistance to Federal Au

My Dad's Farm Truck on New Year's Day

My dad owns two trucks.  One is a white "town" truck.  It looks nice and is fairly contemporary.  The other is a circa 1998 brown "farm" diesel truck. This farm truck was "totaled" by insurance adjusters when the heavy storm hit my parents' property three years ago.  It was parked next to the barn at that time.  The barn was completely destroyed.  The wind picked the truck up and slammed it into the ground. The windshield was cracked, there were a few minor dents from flying debris, and the paint over the entire body was scratched and chipped but the old diesel still started and still ran smoothly.  So dad kept using it for hauling things around the farm.  What else was he going to do with it?  Apparently, it was no longer legally worth anything except for scrap metal. Regular readers know that my dad suffered a mild stroke early last year.  He has since regained his balance, strength, stamina, and speech that had all be initially impaired by the s