Len’s Book Review: A Refugee at Hanover Tavern

A Refugee at Hanover Tavern: The Civil War Diary of Margaret Wight Edited by Shirley A. Haas and Dale Paige Talley (History Press, 2013); $21.99   During our May Overland Campaign tour with Gordon Rhea, I happened across this book in the Hanover Tavern bookstore. I quickly picked it up, and it crossed my eyes … Read more

Revealing the Pulse of the Nation: National Geographic Magazine Commemorates the Centennial of the Civil War

I was a seven-year-old boy who had never thrown a baseball, been to a baseball game, nor had Roger Maris hit 61 home runs or the Reds and Yankees tangled in the 1961 World Series. The Centennial commemoration of the American Civil War was underway, and National Geographic magazine, Volume 119, Number 4, dated April … Read more

Help Needed: Dedicated Volunteers Preferred

BGES thrives on low overhead and the voluntary efforts of members and interested parties to accomplish tasks that are essential to the daily and recurring operations of the organization. Tasks that might require a full- or part-time, paid staff member in a larger group with more monetary throughput become a necessary but occasional task that … Read more

BGES Members Launch Final Assault to “Carry the Position”

  BGES members have never failed in a challenge, and, like Yorktown, we have systematically besieged our objective, and carefully advanced our parallels in a deliberate fashion, until we have reached the point in which we can breech the British lines in one final rush. The outcome will not be in doubt, provided we carry … Read more

BGES Member Making a Difference: Mike Green

Interview by Jeff Fioravanti   I would like to take pen in hand to introduce you to a retired history teacher, photographer, and longtime supporter of the Blue & Gray Education Society: Mike Green. Mike spent 41 years as a high school history teacher. During his teaching career, he obtained a Master’s in counseling from … Read more

The Fight to Preserve the Wyse Fork (Wise’s Forks) Civil War Battlefield

By early March 1865, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman was operating with nearly complete freedom in North Carolina on his way north to form a junction with Union forces in Virginia. The responsibility for ensuring a functioning railroad from New Bern to Goldsboro in support of Sherman’s movement rested with Maj. Gen. Jacob D. Cox. … Read more

Having Fun While Doing Good at Fort Shaw

You just never know … Recently, BGES was completing a remarkable tour following the trail of Lewis and Clark from the magnificent Great Falls to the Pacific Coast, and then back again to Great Falls. One of the lower visibility stops was a forgotten and practically abandoned military installation, Fort Robert Gould Shaw (originally Camp … Read more