Dear Friends,
I must apologize for not posting in some time. Between losing my password to the site and having trouble navigating the WordPress interface, I could not get in to provide an update. Today I’ll remedy the absence.
A lot has been happening behind the scenes, First, concerning the Guns of September, the manuscript is with the editors at Savas Beatie. I expect to receive feedback within the next two months, so stay tuned. The new anticipated publication date is April 2020.
Those of you who follow me on Facebook may have caught a few recent references to my next project. I’m going back to my roots by writing a work of history. The tentative title is Their Maryland: Rebel Dreams, Aspirations, and Failure in the Old Line State in September 1862. The book will be a series of analytical essays examining specific topics of importance to understanding the Confederate experience in Maryland during the September 1862 campaign. I’ve pasted the tentative chapter titles below. A few colleagues have read the first chapter and their feedback has been very positive. Savas Beatie has expressed interest, too, so I hope that means the book will be out in 2021. I have 55,000 words written already out of an expected total of 100,000. Fingers crossed that the muse continues to grace me with her presence!
Their Maryland tentative chapter titles
- Rebel Revolutionary: Did Robert E. Lee Hope to Foment Rebellion in Maryland in September 1862? (Completed)
- Liberating the Old Line State: High Hopes and Dashed Expectations in The Army of Northern Virginia (TBD)
- Four Days on the Monocacy: Confederate Encampments Near Frederick City and the Implications for the Lost Orders Debate (Completed)
- Confederates Photographed in Frederick, Maryland: The Case for September 1862 (Completed)
- Stuart’s First Failure: September 13, 1862 as a Harbinger of Things to Come (TBD)
- We Will Make Our Stand: A Critical Re-Assessment of Robert E. Lee’s Defensive Strategy at Antietam/Sharpsburg on September 15-16, 1862 (Completed)
- A Very Personal Fight: Robert E. Lee at Antietam/Sharpsburg on September 17, 1862 (Completed)
Last, but not least, I’d like to wish everyone a very happy and pleasant Thanksgiving Holiday. For those historically inclined I’d like to mention that the holiday we celebrate today originated with President Lincoln in 1863. I paste the proclamation below for your edification.
Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln (Source)
Onward and Upward!
AR
Alex Rossino Online 