A Quick Look Back and Look Forward

As I try to look ahead to the blessings, hopes and opportunities of another new year, I start by looking back a bit. In recent weeks, I have found a few leads to stories on various individual soldiers, their service and their lives. I have posted a couple and am working on others. These stories take longer to research, write and proofread than transcribing an article, offering opinions or reviewing a book, but also tend to be more enjoyable and even more educational to me. Not only do I learn their individual stories, but it helps me realize just how many different people were involved in the war, he many lives were affected, how many personal narratives occurred. That seems like a fairly obvious point, but finding and telling these tales, each one different, really drives that home for me. It really is different to write such entries instead of just reading somebody else's work. I guess it's a feeling of ownership, with perhaps a developing sense of familiarity with the subject. Hopefully I can find more such projects as the new year proceeds.

2015 was a good year for the blog, I believe, especially the last few months. I am happy with several research projects I finished, such as the posts on John Rankin and John Parker, the study on the George Grey Barnard statue of Abraham Lincoln and the connection I found between a Kentucky basketball player and the Civil War. My hope is to continue to find such interesting stories and to be able to do more such research and writing.

Anyway, 2016 is now here and perhaps even a history blogger should take time to look forward. I have some good research already started and hope it continues to progress nicely. I would like to average at least one post per week (though I will try to avoid posting just to say I met some quota.) I cannot know for sure where my obsession will go during this year, but am ready to find out what stories pop up and what ideas fill my mind along the way. Family history in the war will likely be one topic I continue to explore, as will the roles of Kentucky and the Cincinnati area in the conflict. Hopefully I can take the time to make some short trips (Perryville, Richmond, Ky., Mill Springs are possibilities) and offer perspectives on those or other places. Reading more books and reviewing those books are other goals I would like to accomplish. 

Well, that's enough for now. As always, time itself will tell how things go. 

Happy New Year to all who visit and read this blog. I thank you all for your support and wish you the best in 2016 and beyond.

"The Coming Tempest": More Thoughts on Abolition

Let me start with a little bit of self-congratulation that I hope readers will excuse and forgive, but this post will be number 400 since I started on blogger on June 19, 2009. I realize many of these entries have involved transcribing articles and stories, and perhaps not as much original writing as I had hoped,  and I certainly make no claim that all 400 are of the highest quality, but I do feel a bit of pride about having stuck with this for so long. Looking for items to write about has opened my eyes to quite a few new perspectives not only about the war, but how people thought about it at the time, how it is studied and remembered today and how many different perspectives -some ground in emotion, some in serious study, others in wishful thinking or daydreaming - there really are. I do not live in a hotbed of the war so my perspective is probably much more limited than others, but I do think my understanding of the war and the people who study it has grown, though with much more room to improve. Anyway, I just wanted to make a brief note of this little milestone and also note that I have come up with a new research project and idea that will combine a couple of my passions and hopefully uncover some interesting stories about the Civil War and its participants.
 
With no further ado, here is post # 400.
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 On April 26, 1862, theCovington Journal printed another story about abolitionism and what the future might hold. This editor seems to have picked up on the advancing momentum this idea had gathered in the north and was not afraid to comment about this movement.

THE ABOLITION ISSUE
"Either Slavery or the Republic Must Perish!"
On Thursday last, in the House, while the confiscation bill was under discussion, Mr. Lovejoy 
declared that: "Either slavery or the Republic must perish." 

He also said: 
 
"Those who defend slavery defend the rebellion, for slavery and rebellion are synonymous."

A few days ago, in the Senate, Mr. Wade said that

"Men who would talk of constitutional guarantees, of habeas corpus, the phrases 'that no man shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law,' &c., in this great crisis, is a traitor at heart." 

The Washington correspondent of the New York Tribune, in view of the Abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, thanked god "even for this war with its present and prospective horrors." 

These declarations are more than straws, in dictating the direction of the wind. Coupled with the formal action of the party controlling the Government, in nullifying the constitution in regard to the rendition of fugitive slaves, the abolition of slavery in the District, the freeing of slaves by military order, &c., they are signs of the coming tempest.

No man can shut his eyes to the tendency of events. As our arms advance the fanatics of the North become more insolent, more exacting,  more determined in their purpose to abolish slavery or break up the Union - "Either slavery or the republic must perish."
Listen to the words of Henry Clay in describing the Abolitionists: 

"They are resolved to persevere in the pursuit of their object at all hazards, however calamitous it may be. With them the rights of property are nothing; the acknowledged and incontestable powers of the States are nothing; civil war, a dissolution of the Union, and the overthrow of the government in which are concentrated the fondest hopes of the civilized world, are nothing, A single idea  has taken possession of their minds, and onward they pursue it, overlooking all barriers, reckless and regardless of all consequences."
 
Will these men succeed in their hellish scheme? The struggle will be a terrible one. We believe a very large majority of the people are opposed not only to breaking up the Union but to the alternative presented by the Abolitionists - the destruction of slavery; but the Abolitionists have possession of the government with ist countless offices, its vast moneyed power, and its immense army. The border slave States seem to be bound hand and foot. Our only hope is in the conservative men of the North - the hardy yeomanry, the honest mechanics and laborers who know perfectly well that every great interest of the country is opposed to the reckless schemes of the theoretical fanatics who control affairs at Washington. All things considered, the world has never witnessed a more gallant contest than those true-hearted men of the North are making for the constitution as it is and the Union as it was.  

Benjamin Wade, courtesy senate.gov

Owen Lovejoy, courtesy wikipedia

Scott Sarich of TotalGettysburg.com Interviews Me

Yes, someone actually interviewed  me.

There are no earth-shattering revelations in the article, and much of that information can be found on various pages of this blog, though not so organized, but it was a pleasure and honor to have Scott Sarich give me this opportunity. I hope readers will check it out and enjoy it.

Once done with it, please explore his site, www.totalgettysburg.com and check it out. It has a lot of information, past and present, about Gettysburg, as well as several other interviews with bloggers and Civil War enthusiasts.

Thanks again to Scott for allowing me this enjoyable experience. I hope

Design Updates

UPDATE 9/29: As I mentioned in the comments sections, the resolution of your monitor will affect how the site looks. My home monitor has a very high resolution and that is what I use when I'm designing this. I may have to think about changing it to a lower resolution when designing this blog. I may experiment some more with this.

Please pardon the dust, as I'm making some design changes, which I'm wont to do from time-to-time -  it's the blessing and the curse of being able to make any changes I want, but the previous design, as much as I liked it, lasted for more than a year and I thought it could be tough at times to read the posts, with the way the background was, so perhaps this more colorful approach will make things better.

I'll try not to make too many changes over the next few days and settle on something I like quickly, but I may keep playing around at least a little bit.

Thanks for your patience with me.
Richard

Really cool site - soldier letters

Thanks to the House Divided blog from Dickinson College for posting an entry about a wonderful site - soldierstudies.org.

It is going to be a fascinating site to explore. I have already found one series of letters that fascinates me. I'm certainly going to be digging around that site some more.

Blog in transition

If you have any trouble connecting to my blog for the next day or so, please be patient. I'm moving from civilwarobsession.blogspot.com to my own domain name of www.civilwarobsession.com.

You may update your links if you choose, but the old link should redirect you to the right address rather quickly. It does take a couple days for this to finalize so there may be a bit of a lag at first, but it should be no big deal.

My other blog is also moving and it's new address is. www.civiilwarheadstones.com

I was surprised how quick and easy this move was, and, especially, how inexpensive it was, with blogger's help.

If anyone else is interested in using your own domain name, check out the settings tab and the the publishing option.

Anyway, this has been a good year for me and I look forward to continuing on with My Civil War Obsession into 2011 and hope to find more good stuff.

I may eek one more post in before 2010 ends, but, if not, I wish all my readers a most happy and prosperous new year.

Can you judge a blog by its cover?

I know I just changed the look of my blog a couple of months ago, but as I was working on it this weekend, I found a couple new formatting ideas I had not seen before and decided to experiment with them a bit.

I think I found one I like and that should stick around a while. I really like the transparency of the form, allowing the background photograph to be visible. I think the text color makes it still readable without too much effort.

Hopefully I'm done tinkering with it for now, but if I find something else that looks neat, I may try it.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

99th Post here at the Obsession

Well, after about 13 months in the blogosphere, I've reached my "post before my 100th post," and though 100 seems like the bigger milestone, I thought now would be a good time to do a "state of the Obsession" entry.

When I started this little experiment, I had no idea  how it would go or what I would get out of it, but I must admit I've really enjoyed it. It is difficult at times to find material to post, and the time to post it, and I have not quite posted the kind of opinions and thoughts that I originally believed I might, but it has been a good learning experience.

When I started this, I thought I would enter all kinds of original opinions, observations and thoughts about the war and, at the start, I did. Since then, I've started adding a lot more reprints of various pieces I've found in old books, newspapers or ephemera, and have added a few book reviews as well, but not as much original opinion, analysis or insight.

The time I started blogging was also about the same time I started reading various Civil War blogs, and that has been quite an eye-opener. I see some very well-written, thoroughly-researched articles and entries, and several bloggers I have found offer really detailed and informative analysis of various subjects related to the Civil War. There really is quite a lot to learn just from the blogs.

I'm not convinced I can offer the type of insight that many other fellow bloggers do, but I plan to keep trying to find something new or interesting to post. I hope I can average at least one entry per week, though more would be ideal, but I think the direction my blog has headed in recent months is one I like and will try to continue to follow, with a mixture of book reviews, discussions of recent articles, re-printing older articles, poems or stories, and I'd like to add some more original type of material as well.

I will see where this continuing experiment takes me, but I've really enjoyed it so far. By starting this blog, I have found some very enjoyable blogs to follow and discovered new ways to learn about this fascinating period of time. I hope that in some small way I can contribute something unique to the world of Civil War study, as I continue to explore my Civil War Obsession.

Thanks for indulging me in this perhaps self-congratulatory post.

Addition to my blog

On the toolbar to the right of the main text, undneath the "Who am I" box, I have added a gadget of a slideshow of the Civil War headstones I have found throughout Campbell County, Kentucky so far. Just click on the pictures and if your pop-up blocker is not on, you can look at individual pictures, or the whole slideshow in a different window.

I hope I will be able to find more headstones and get more pictures starting next spring when the weather is better, but I think I had a good start this year, with quite a few photos, and even a couple of stories about some of the men. Earlier this year, I made a post about the fighting Seither brothers, 3 of whom fought for the Union and one for the Confederacy. The headstone for August Seither (his name spelled Seiter) is among my pictures - I still hope to find pictures of at least 2 of his brothers, who I think are buried in the area.

I like how this new gadget looks and hope it adds something nice to my blog.

Public Speaking

Before July of 2008, I had never given a public talk. After last night's talk before the Northern Kentucky Civil War Roundtable, I have now done three - 2 for that group and one earlier this month for a local historical society.

Granted that still leaves me quite the novice in this area, but I did notice I felt much more relaxed and comfortable last night than in the past. Perhaps it is true that "practice makes perfect."

I had never imagined myself doing even one such talk, but, then again, I didn't expect to be posting blogs on the web either. Hopefully my entries and my talks have brought at least some enjoyment and maybe even some learning to anyone who has read or heard me.

I just wonder what the future holds. I certainly intend to continue this blog, but will other speaking opportunities arise? Will I find new subjects worth discussing? Only time can tell.