Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, running north-south between the Blue Ridge to the east, the Alleghenies to the west, hosted a four-year onslaught of clashes as Union and Confederate soldiers struggled to gain control over the strategic region. Indeed, it was a major transportation route with access to Richmond in the south and Washington, D.C., in the … Read more
Unless you traffic in oxymorons, concise and historian are two words that aren’t often seen in the same sentence, much less paired together. That’s what makes BGES member Michael Beard such a rare breed. In a career that has spanned more than 40 years, he has served as a teacher, researcher, site interpreter, preservationist, and … Read more
The arrival of Coronavirus in the midst of a great 2020 program flared up as we were doing the final registration forms for 2020 and had just agreed with historians and received approval for our 2021 program. With the rolling cancellations on 2020 and leaving the possibility of doing some of the schedule later in … Read more
Few things give Mike Sheriff as much joy as pulling on one of his authentic hand-sewn period military uniforms. The beauty of the carefully stitched details. The feel of the heavy woven fabric draped over his shoulders. The shine of leather straps, and the distinguished look of his hat. “Any day you wear wool is … Read more
It’s not the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog. Perhaps Ulysses S. Grant had this thought in mind in the summer of 1864. That’s when the Army’s Commanding General appointed the diminutive—and, as of yet, unproven—Philip Sheridan to lead the Union’s forces in the Shenandoah … Read more
Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil War by Elizabeth R. Varon (Oxford University Press, 2019) Dr. Varon is the Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History at the University of Virginia—certainly a prestigious posting that would suggest cutting-edge scholarship is the norm. So it was with some high expectations that I … Read more
The first month of the Great Photography Hunt has passed with five featured photographs, one released each Wednesday morning at 7 AM, having been circulated. We will summarize each month giving those who participated feedback and those who did not encouragement to join the fun. Let’s open with what the Hunt is and what it … Read more