I'm Still Here, Still Researching, Still Blogging

 I know that blogs are now a thing mostly of the past as podcasts (even via video) and live streaming have come into vogue and are the major tools of social media and communication, as well as new apps and, honestly, probably some things of which I have not heard yet, but I'm still here, as is this blog. 

I know my activity here has slowed down considerably. I mostly regret that. Last year just was not a productive year for me from a  research or writing perspective, but things have improved in 2022. I have resumed doing research for my book (or website)  project, and have started writing more. Now, that will include this blog. It may not be a daily thing, but I do hope and intend to write much more frequently. 

Many of my entries will probably focus on my current research, mentioning interesting stories I find, roadblocks that confound me and other  issues that come to mind, including my attempt to figure out what the final product will be and  if there is any end  in sight.,

Anyway, I have found more good information for my Campbell County Civil War Soldiers project. I even found a few new names in the last week or so, and have determined to write many more individual stories than I originally anticipated. These men deserve to be remembered for their service.

Recently, I created a document for the 23rd Kentucky Infantry regiment. I have over 120 names for it. My current plan, always subject to change, is to write several stories on many of these men, but also to  have a separate story just on the regiment. I know of no regimental history for this group, so this will be a challenge, but I should be able to put together at least a few  hundred words of a high-level look at the experiences of this unit. I think that will help me, and hopefully others, to understand better what the individuals went through during the war.At least that is the goal.

I may do something for the 53rd Kentucky as well, especially company F, another unit with many Campbell County men in it. This unit formed late in the war, but were involved in the Second Saltville Raid in late 1864, and I've found several names of men who were killed, captured, or wounded during that expedition.

Another recent addition to my  project is to take a closer look at the sailors whose names I've found. I assembled a list of ship names I've found associated with these sailors and surprisingly came up with more than 50 ships. Several of these men served on multiple vessels, but I do see at least one of them was a "receiving ship" for new sailors, a concept new to me. This part of the project will probably be quite educational to  me as I look into the navy and these individual ships. It will certainly be a challenge even to do a high-level, not-too-detailed study like this, but I think it has potential to be interesting to me and to improve my understanding of  the war. 

Several of the ships I've found were either built in Cincinnati, or the  navy purchased them there, so I like the regional nature of that. It should fit in well with the scope of my book since Cincinnati is right across the river from Campbell County (though I believe Cincinnati's ship-building area was a bit further west than where Campbell County is.)

At one glance, this seems to me more like a county history than a war book and perhaps that is accurate and maybe even desirable, but it has already changed how I  look at the war and study it. I may never be an expert in military tactics, strategies, and operations.

This project still comes down to studying the individual men who fought the war and who lived in my home county before, during, and/or after the war, including their lives inside and outside of their military years. There is a lot of good information that I believe is worth finding and sharing and I'm hoping this little project of mine can contribute to the understanding of Campbell County history, the Civil War, and/or the men who fought it and the people who lived through it. If I advance the understanding or knowledge of even one piece of these areas, it will be a good thing.

I'm going to go ahead and just post this now, on a Friday afternoon, without thorough proofreading or checking it on for a couple of days before I post it. Enough with such delays (though I do have another family-history post related to the war that has been in "draft" mode for a while. I'll have to complete it soon, but I do plan to come back and post more about what my research finds and where my plans and goals head in the future. This has research has been a very positive experience for me.

500,000 page views

Blogger’s dashboard includes a couple of statistics, including total pageviews, and a little bit of other information.

The total views for this blog just went over 500,000! 

I realize that may be peanuts for some websites or popular blogs, but it is an impressive number for this blog, as far as I am concerned. That is over half a million views! I guess some of those are my own (even though I keep checking “don’t track my views for this blog”) but that seems like a high number for little old me, just plugging away here when I find something to write about.

I guess this is a self-congratulatory post, perhaps not the best idea ever, but I think it is worth a brief post here. When I started this in 2009, I had no idea what the future held, or how long I would keep trying this, but here it is 2018 - and I’m still here. My postings may not be as frequent as in the past, but I’m happy with a couple per month, at least most of the time.

We’ll see how the future goes, but I have no plans to go away anytime soon.

This blog just reached a nice milestone. Hopefully more will keep following. 

Pardon the Dust...

Soon after I first started this blog in 2009, I made frequent updates to the theme, changing colors and other details of the layout and features, but in 2011, I found one combination I really liked and ended up sticking with it until now.

Over the past few months, I thought about trying to redesign this site. I mainly wanted to change the background picture, but could not do it  on the same theme. Yesterday, I finally decided to change the theme and see what happened.

My first attempt was very different and I did not completely like it, so I kept working on it and, soon enough, ended up with the current configuration.

Of course, this looks very similar to the previous theme, with the same background picture and similar colors. I just like the color blue, so it is not surprising that I kept it, but I am a little surprised that I did not make any more major changes, though a late addition of a photo behind the blog title seems pretty nice right now.

I may keep playing around with different themes, settings, layouts and background pictures to see if I like something else better, so please forgive me if you look at this on different days and see what looks like a different blog. I have no definite plans other than to play around and see what I like.

Ideas for 2018

To start the new year, I will not resort to the cliché of calling these resolutions, but I thought it might be a good idea to post ideas of some things I would like to accomplish about this blog and my interest in the Civil War in 2018. It still seems surreal that I have been doing this blog thing since 2009. So much has happened and changed since then, but I plan to keep on plugging away here. How many, if any, of these will happen this year, I do not know, but i do like at least having a list of items in writing.

1. Read more books. I have done pretty well at this in the last half of 2017, at least until my most recent cataract surgery a couple of weeks ago, but I want to do more. I have a few that I have not read yet, and a couple of those stand  out as ones I want to read first. 

2. Rearrange my bookshelves This might help the first one, but I would like to re-arrange my books so that they are in some sort of logical order. I did recently create a shelf for my Civil War books dealing with Kentucky, Cincinnati and “local” books (though there is one more I know I have, but I cannot find it and it is making me CRAZY!) but I need to do this with more books. I have a couple shelves semi-organized, but need to do more, though deciding how and what topics to use will be tough. At least one or two will be for Lincoln, and I think I will probably use “biographies” for another, instead of more specific ideas like “generals.” Perhaps an actual “to be read” pile or shelf would be nice as well 

3. Travel. I will not be a globetrotter, but I need to see a couple of places in Kentucky for the first time  (Richmond, Mill Springs, Wildcat Mountain) and revisit other places such as Perryville, Bardstown and Hodgenville. I will visit Cynthiana again and perhaps take one out-of-state trip, possibly to Springfield, Illinois. I would like to see Lincoln’s Home, the Lincoln Presidential Library, his tomb and whatever other Lincoln attractions are located there. I have thought about that for a while and think it would be fun, though a long drive. I do need to go to other battlefields like Shiloh, Franklin, Chickamsuga or back to Gettysburg or Antietam, but I don’t see those happening this upcoming year.

4. Post more often I’d like at least a couple of posts every month, though I can’t promise it. I look at my blogroll and a lot of blogs I started following a few years ago are now gone or inactive. I suppose podcasts are the current hot thing, but that does not interest me. I’ll keep on blogging as I enjoy it, especially when I come up with a good or fun idea for a post. Researching, writing, and editing/proofreading these remains fun for me and I do think it helps keep my mind sharp and learn new things about the war and about how to express my thoughts. It is a good creative outlet for me, no matter how many page views I do or do not get. 

5. Redesign this blog? I really like the current look, with all the blue coloration, but part of me is getting the itch to make some changes. It has had this same look for several years now and I kind of want to make changes, but every time I look at it and try to think of how to change it, I just do not come up with any ideas. I simply like how it looks. It’s a bit of a conundrum, but not a big deal in the long run. 

6. Get involved in re-enacting or living history? I have purchased a Union infantry private’s frock cost and have ordered some pants which will need hemming. I still need other garments - a shirt, suspenders, socks, brogans and a kepi at least - but have started the process. I suppose i am not sure I want to re-enact, but probably have more interest in living history to represent the museum where I volunteer. Perhaps I will try both, but the living history is what I have been interested in and why I have looked into these purchases for a couple of years. I think wearing a uniform will improve my perspective on the soldiers who fought, especially if I do re-enact and will let me communicate it better as well. 

That seems like a good list, at least to ponder and to try to conquer. I guess now it is time that will tell how man6 of these I attack or accomplish. 

Happy New Year, everyone! 

Post 600. Really?

I started working \on another post - which I may post later today, or perhaps in a day or two - and noticed that I have published 599 posts so far, so I decided to make this post to acknowledge post 600.

I started this blog in June of 2009, so it has been over 7 years, including a couple of long droughts without any posts, but I still think 600 is an impressive number. I certainly never realized I would blog for this long or make so many entries. I still may not make as many posts as I would ideally like to, but they are still fun to do. It feels great when I have a "voila!" moment and find something I want to post, even if it is just a link to a group I support or a reprint of an old newspaper article I find to be  interesting.

I do not do as many "editorial" type of opinion pieces as I expected to when I started this, but perhaps I will find a few more topics about which to pontificate here as this year rolls along.  I also want to do more reading again and post more book reviews. I am currently reading a good book and hope to finish it soon and offer my thoughts on it. Book reviews are pretty fun to write, though I admit that over the years I have read a couple of really bad books and I just do not review them. I do not want to be so critical in my reviews, though I will offer constructive criticisms in the reviews I do publish. Those other books I referenced  just did not have much good to review and I feel more comfortable just skipping them here.

Another thing that has come to mind is whether or not I want to change the design? I like the current look, especially all the blue color, but I have had this same look since late 2011, I believe, and I wonder if I want to change it. I changed it a few times in the first couple of years, but not recently. Do I want to change just to make a change, or just leave good enough alone? I don't know, but I'm sure I will think about it some more. Maybe I will make a change by June, when the anniversary of my first post here approaches.

Still Hanging Around

Yes, I am still here, or maybe I should say I'm baaaaaaack!

A year without posting is shameful and though I will likely touch on some of the reasons (excuses?) for my absence in this and maybe future posts, I do have a few topics to mention today. It will probably not come across as the most prepared or researched posting ever, but I hope it will be evidently honest and straight-forward about some of my life experiences and studies and reasons for such an absence.

First, despite the lack of posting, I have maintained my interest in the Civil War. I still serve as President of the James A Ramage Civil War Museum. My previous post was a preview of our Battery Hooper Days event for 2013, but this post comes just In time to review the 2014 version of this event. It went well, as temperatures were low for August in this part of the land, and the rain stayed away despite cloudy skies.  We had  several new displays inside the museum and out, including a medical tent set-up in our encampment,  a new display on the 1864 election and a re-enactors group from Camp Nelson, portraying Company L of the 12th Regiment U.S Colored Heavy Artillery.  We also had a temporary display of a statue that Civil War veterans donated to a local group of nuns as a thank you for care they had given to their wounds. It is a beautiful statue and we were fortunate to have it on display.

Attendance was a bit lower an usual, at least on Sunday. That was frustrating as we thought we had done a good job of greeting publicity, buy maybe the threatening skies scared some visitors away from a mostly outdoors event. We controlled what we could and are satisfied with our efforts, though we will always look for ways to do even better.

I also continue to volunteer at the Campbell County Historical and Genealogical Society, as acquisitions manager. We will celebrate our 25th anniversary in 2015 and are in the midst of planning a special event on June 27 of next year, so that will require some time and effort on my part as well.

I also am scheduled to give so talk on Abraham Lincoln at the society's January meeting. I am not an experienced public speaker, so that will be a challenge for me, though one I do welcome. As of now, my talk will focus mostly on the 1864 election, the 13th Amendment and Lincoln's Second Inaugural, with some background information about the war's first three years and some of the things that influenced Lincoln as he approached late 1864 and beyond. Hopefully I will be able to do this as a PowerPoint presentation (including finding the equipment to use) as I think that will help me quite a bit.

One of the reasons for my hiatus from posting was, ironically, BHD last year. Preparing for and then going through  It wore me out physically, mentally and emotionally, and just sapped me of my motivation, not only from blogging, but also from basic reading or research also. My job at an insurance company was also extremely busy at this time last year, with lots of mandatory overtime. That did not help me at all.

The good news is that within the past few months, I have started reading much more. I have not dug into much research yet,  but I can feel my desire to do research h and to resume blogging growing as I continue to read more. I think I am back on the right track, and though I cannot promise how much research I will do or how often I will blog, I am confident it will be much more common an in the past year. I have plans to do more cemetery research and with the renovation of the Covington branch of the Kenton Count Library being complete, I should be able to head over there more often too. Book reviews should be another good source of material for me as well. I don't know if I will do full reviews of the books I have read in the last few months, but I know that I will want to post at least some thoughts on a few of them as I did make some good choices in reading material.

Also. I believe that my use of my IPAD, and less use of my desktop computer, has made me less interested in posting such long posts (at least compared to message board or Facebook posts) and I hope I can overcome that excuse as well.

I also should mention that I took a very informative (and fatiguing) walking tour at Perryville in May. I saw parts of the field I had not seen before, and learned quite a bit of new information about the battle. The guides were super knowledgeable and did a fantastic job leading the group,of about 40 people over the many hills and trails in the park.  This tour also influenced some of my reading choices in the weeks that followed, a fortunate occurrence, I do believe as I learned even more and was able to understand what I read better, since I had just been on the ground the authors described. Perhaps I will post a few pictures from that tour, though I continued to focus on cannons and split-rail fences . I also took several shots of open fields and hills, though those may not appear interesting, unless I can attach accurate captions to describe what the show. I will see what I can do about that, as Perryville remains one of my favorite places to visit. I even have been there twice already this year, which is unusual. Hopefully I will make at least one more trip, sometime in the fall of this year.

How (and whom) does volunteering help?

Referring to my previous post when I mentioned (hopefully without coming off as whining or complaining) about how busy I have been with various volunteer work I have been doing, I thought I would take some time to "think out loud" a bit about volunteer work in general, and this blog seemed a good place to do that.

I do think my work helps those organizations where I volunteer - actually, I [i] know[/i] it does - and also the local communities. I am sure several thousand additional people have visited Fort Wright ( the city that owns the Ramage Museum) over the years and even if they don't spend tons of money, they do spend some and they do get to see what the city has to offer.

My work with the Campbell County Historical Society does not generate as many visitors, but those that come have access to a tremendous amount of local genealogical information. Our family files books of local photographs, veterans's records (over 12,000 individual entries as of now) and the database that has more than 250,000 names in it all provide a great deal of information and has helped countless people over the years.

I think my newly found involvement with the Freedom Corridor group and the committee for our annual local History Day will prove to help and inform local citizens in similar fashions.

With that said, I think I get more benefit from these groups than they get from me. That implies no lack of work or effort on my part, but, rather, just describes how many opportunities I get for personal growth, through meeting new people and contacts, to having new experiences (especially in public speaking or presenting, tasks I have not done or enjoyed much in the past) and to gaining new confidence when ideas I suggest are appreciated or work well.

Accomplishments and tasks like those and perhaps others I am forgetting right now make me feel more at ease around others and more confident in my own abilities. Even writing this blog, though not so much recently, lets me know I can contribute my own thoughts and ideas to the world at large instead of always just being alone or quiet or "reserved" and minding my own business all the time.

I know that nobody reads this blog for my psychoanalysis of myself, so I will stop now, but part of this blog's goal is to help me explore my Civil War Obsession and the how's and whys of it, and I think my ventures into the world of volunteering connects with that goal quite nicely.

I appreciate my readers' understanding of an occasional post such as this and I will make more efforts to post on more war-related subjects and not just on myself.

Here I Am

I apologize for the lack of activity this year and do hope to begin posting more often though I realize I said that previously and that some things are easier said than done.

I have been very busy with e Ramage Museum since we reopened, serving as President as well as taking over many of the treasurer's duties. That has been quite an experience. I think it is good for me and my personal development, but, obviously, not so good for my blogging or even my reading.

The museum has had a good year so far. Our Blue/Gray Dinner and Silent Auction just took place this week. We had a great crowd and a lot of good auction items, and bidding was quite impressive. We should end up netting around $3,000, which will cover a good portion of our annual budget. (Yes, we are a small museum.)

Our visitor count has been good, and we were very pleased with the turnout for the Civil War Trust's Park Day earlier this month. Our friends and neighbors helped us accomplish quite a bit of work on the museum grounds, cleaning up leaves and other debris, along with reprinting the garage area that we use for storage.

We have made some new contacts with other local groups and have made plans to be represented at a couple neat local events in June.

It looks to be a promising year for us, and one sure to keep me occupied, thou that is no excuse for me to write so little.

I'm also involved with the Campbell County Historical and Genealogical Society and a group currently being formed as an association of local sites and groups associated with the Underground Railroad or other aspects of people seeking freedom along the Ohio River. Right now, our name is the Freedom Corridor or possibly the National Freedom Corridor, but it has potential to be a good resource in this area.

I do wonder how many other bloggers are involved as volunteers at such groups. Obviously, I have not contributed much to the Civil War blogosphere lately, but I do think my efforts with see other groups still provide a positive contribution to the study of the War and increasing interest and knowledge of it. I've met quite a few people in these roles and think that will only help me going forward.

Hopefully the time between this entry and my next one will not be so long. I ask for your forgiveness for my lack of activity, online at least.

Emancipation Proclamation January 1, 1863

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/

Obviously, this will be an easy and popular post on Civil War blogs tonight and tomorrow, but it's a subject important enough to deserve much commemoration and celebration.

Plus, from a selfish standpoint, as 2012 progressed, I found myself using my tablet ( thank you Santa Claus 2011) more than my desktop, and that has hindered my posting. I'm hoping that this Blogger app will make it easier for me to post updates like this one, the first I have done like this.

Nevertheless, January 1, 1863 was a tremendously important day in United States history. Lincoln's proclamation was not perfect, of course, and it did not immediately end slavery throughout the land or defeat racism (Northern or Southern), but it was a large step forward for an American President to issue an official anti- slavery document for the nation (and world) to see. It established the ending of slavery as an official U.S. government aim of the ongoing war.

I hope people other than "history buffs" read and think about this tomorrow, even if just briefly. This is more than just another Civil War milestone.

Abraham or Abe? Jefferson or Jeff?

This is rather silly, but it has run around my head in the last couple of days, so I figured this would be a good outlet to write it out and see if anything interesting or worthy comes of it.

Does it matter how formally or informally we refer to historical figures? Is saying President Lincoln any more acceptable than referring to him as Abe, Old Abe, Abraham or something similar? What about President Davis or Jeff Davis, or Jefferson Davis?

Of course context is important as a scholarly study would be much more formal than a blog or a conversation, but what about during a  simple conversation between two Civil War buffs/students/bloggers or even professors? Or even something more than simple, but not published? Or how about in this new world of blogging and social media? Is it rude to use such nicknames for people who have been dead for more than a century? 

Is it a sign of disrespect to refer to "Bobby Lee" or Billy Sherman instead of Robert E. Lee or William T.Sherman? (And what about leaving out the middle initials - Robert Lee and William Sherman?)

Yeah, this isn't exactly a new level of scholarship or research, but these thoughts rambled around my brain a bit and I thought this was a good place to express and explore them.

Miscellany (and yes, I'm still here)

Wow. Over a month without a post. I do apologize for that and, honestly, I'm still not sure how it happened. October was a very busy month for me, but not to find time for even one post over the past 4 or 5 weeks is inexcusable, but I am still here and am starting to post again.

I have started some cemetery research again. Whether I post my findings here or I re-activate my headstones blog remains uncertain, but yesterday was a nice reminder of how enjoyable it can be to get out and do some field research, though the difficulty in reading some stones can be quite frustrating too. I do not have a lot of Civil War battlefields or similar grounds that I can walk so easily, but there are still quite a few Civil War veterans buried in the area and hopefully I can start uncovering (no pun intended) some of their stories again. 

I did finish two fine books in the past few weeks, but really did not take enough notes to fully review them, though I will add a few words here.

The Long Pursuit: Abraham Lincoln's Thirty-Year Struggle with Stephen Douglas for the Heart and Sould of America by Roy Morris is basically a biography of the the rivalry between these two political giants from the 1830s through Lincoln's triumph in the 1860 Presidential election. It does discuss some of the aspects of their earlier lives, but focuses on their pursuits of public offices and influence. It did not seem to cover anything really new, but does a fine job comparing and contrasting these two men, their successes and failures and their ways of politicking during the early and mid-1800s. It is a fine book to have and read and reminds us that 1860 was merely the culmination of their long rivalry, not just a race in which they happened to be the candidates.

Gettysburg's Forgotten Cavalry Actions: Farnworth's Charge, South Cavlary Field and the Battle of Fairfield, July 3, 1863 by Eric Wittenberg, a revised and expanded sesquicentennial edition, won the Bachelder -Coddington Literary Award in its first edition. It brings to light some serious fighting on the last day of the famed Battle of Gettysburg, action that has been lost in all the attention paid to Pickett's Charge (or Pickett-Pettigrew Charge if you prefer) and the controversy over General Meade's supposed lack of aggressiveness in the pursuit of Lee's army after the battle. It is a very enjoyable book, with many details about the fighting, what happened, where it happened and why it mattered. The battle descriptions are fine, but the strength of the book, in my opinion, is when Wittenberge analyzes the actions and reports of the fighting and offers his view of what happened. Perhaps that is due to his training as a lawyer, but his discussion of whether or not Elmer Farnsworth committed suicide and his conclusion about "Lost Opportunities" form the strength of this book. That is not to say the discussion of these fights is poorly done - to the contrary, the whole book is very well-written and enjoyable, and it does cover new material that is not often discussed. That is quite an accomplishment for a Civil War book these days. This is an important book and I gladly recommend it to any readers looking for something new or who just like cavalry and/or discussion of Gettysburg.