Book Review: The Last Hurrah

      The Last Hurrah, Sterling Price’s Missouri Expedition of 1864 by Kyle S. Sinisi (Rowman and Littlefield, 2015 / paperback 2020) More than 20 years ago, the old Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites hired me to execute a National Park Service grant to conduct a preservation plan for Sterling Price’s … Read more

Plan B for BGES Tours

We don’t know what’s going to happen this year with our tours. We are counting on science and the medical community to get us back in the driver’s seat. We haven’t canceled the 2020 season completely, and we tentatively expect to start again in September. But if it doesn’t work out that way, we have … Read more

BGES Makes Contingency Plans for 2020-2021 Tours

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

Book Review: Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil War

    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

Great Photography Hunt: The Results Are In!

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

BGES Projects: Always Loyal, Never Forgotten

Over the past 26 years, BGES has completed some significant educational enhancements that stand in their own right as exceptional. However, a less heralded characteristic of the organization is its commitment to maintain whatever it does. If it has a BGES logo on it, it will be and is maintained. Pamplin Historical Park The latest … Read more

Creating a Philanthropic Pandemic

I am tired of talking about viruses and germs—aren’t you? What I would like to talk about is a really well-conceived, worldwide, coordinated effort to help the countless nonprofit groups around the world. GivingTuesday started in 2012, and since then has rallied increasing numbers of charities to work with their supporters to shore up fundraising efforts … Read more

Book Review: Congress at War

    Congress at War: How Republican Reformers Fought the Civil War, Defied Lincoln, Ended Slavery, and Remade America, by Fergus M. Bordewich (Knopf, February 2020) I love to read and always have two or three books in progress at any given time. Eventually, one book will win out and will get all the attention until … Read more

A Field Report from Texas Two Step, by Len Riedel

Tour: Texas Two Step Dates: February 7–17, 2020 Tour Leader: Neil Mangum    See below for an update and photos of the successful Fort Clinch symposium in January 2020. As my field opportunities will be more limited, I get the luxury of deciding which programs I will support, and a trip to Houston and San Antonio … Read more