A New Beginning
Well, after some time, I’ve decided to pick up the blogging pen once again. You may remember my former blog at gettysburg-acw.blogspot.com. This one is going to be a little different. If you are anything like me, the tops of books that you’ve read resemble unmown lawns as countless bookmarks poke erratically from the pages to mark a favorite section or quote. And, if you are anything like me, you rarely return to visit those cherished little bits of your former reads. To remedy this, I will return to those bookmarks, find the most interesting, and share them here. Of course, I’ll likely include other thoughts and comments as well.
We’ll start with the master story teller himself. In “The Army of the Potomac: Mr. Lincoln’s Army”, Bruce Catton describes Union General George McClellan’s Army in the spring of 1862, before most had fought in a major battle.
“On the surface, everything was fine. Nearly two hundred thousand young men had been drilled, disciplined, clothed, armed and equipped. They innocently thought themselves veterans. They had roughed it for a whole autumn and winter under canvas, knew what it was to sleep on bare ground in the rain, and learned the intricate, formalized routines by which marching columns transformed themselves into battle lines, and they had been brought to a razor edge of keenness. The great unpredictable that lay ahead of them seemed a bright adventure, for in the 1860s cynicism was not a gift which came to youth free…”
And so we begin.
Respectfully,
Randy