tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-896785847763206152024-03-13T23:59:46.587-07:00Henry Brown RichardsonA Yankee Who Fought for the SouthAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17640392547149192352noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89678584776320615.post-36052493100275235282013-06-30T11:25:00.001-07:002013-06-30T14:34:50.987-07:00As Ewell's Corps Marched to Gettysburg Where Was His Chief Engineer?
Where was Henry Richardson on June 30, 1863, as everyone was preparing for the battle? Ewell had apparently forgotten to tell certain key people that plans were changed and that he was heading south. Suppose Henry had missed the battle: a lowly captain's absence wouldn't have made much difference. But Ewell did depend on him for reconnaissance, and would be mighty angry if he wasn't Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17640392547149192352noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89678584776320615.post-37770110466848848822013-06-06T06:41:00.000-07:002013-06-06T06:41:06.498-07:00150 Years Ago Today Ewell's 2nd Corps Was Moving Toward Gettysburg
Ewell had taken command of the Second Corps only a few days before on June 1st. He had followed Lee's advice and retained most of Jackson's staff, who knew how the Corps functioned from a practical point of view. Jackson's Corps Engineer James Boswell had been killed in the same friendly fire tragedy that brought Jackson down at Chancellorsville; Ewell replaced Boswell with Captain Henry Brown Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17640392547149192352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89678584776320615.post-16493226230617926502011-07-25T03:23:00.001-07:002013-03-20T06:56:31.862-07:00Another Writer's Trap
Yes, I am still bogged down in the First Great Awakening.
The research becomes so interesting that I don't want to leave it. The other problem is that I have to squeeze three books down into about three paragraphs (in order to avoid breaking the thrust of the main narrative) and that is really hard work.
What's needed is a simple but accurate summary of complex ideas. For example, it looks as Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17640392547149192352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89678584776320615.post-52286128415694834772011-07-09T08:27:00.001-07:002011-07-09T08:27:14.828-07:00If Jonathan Edwards Could Inspire Backsliding Puritans, There May Also be Hope for Lazy Writers.I've been making better progress on this book lately. What's my secret? Plain old self discipline. I have somehow been able to work straight through every morning this week between breakfast and lunch. That has meant three to five hours of writing, but it doesn't mean I have covered much space. I seem to be advancing at the rate of one paragraph per hour. It's not that I'm trying to Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17640392547149192352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89678584776320615.post-66940097363095881732011-07-03T08:36:00.001-07:002011-07-03T08:36:25.321-07:00Sorry for That Bad Arithmetic, Of Course I know that Gettysburg was 148 Years AgoI have corrected that unfortunate figure on most but not all editions of this blog.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17640392547149192352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89678584776320615.post-32212755329052637092011-07-03T08:16:00.001-07:002011-07-03T08:28:43.206-07:00I Almost Never Happened, But My Ancestor Managed to Survive Gettysburg 148 Years Ago TodayHere we are at an important date in history, which also happens to be my birthday. Being as egocentric as most, I tend to forget about the history and think of my own important dates. But today Paul Krugman's Blog sent me over to the Youtube movies about Gettysburg, which are really worth seeing even if not quite professional.These films reminded me that 148 years ago today my great Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17640392547149192352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89678584776320615.post-60467592762720667802011-07-01T04:01:00.001-07:002011-07-01T04:01:17.257-07:00This Book is Progressing Too Slowly. Suggestions Please.Yesterday, I realized that I hadn't made any real progress on this book for several months now. About the same time, I received an email from a so-called self publishing service, with advice on how to finish a book really fast. The essential idea was to isolate oneself from as many distractions as possible by holing up in a cheap hotel, subsisting on deliveries of pizza and Chinese Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17640392547149192352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89678584776320615.post-74721886129101659032011-06-25T01:28:00.001-07:002011-06-25T01:28:43.383-07:00My Apologies to All SouthernersIn my last post, I seemed to single out Southerners as being particularly reluctant to help replenish the suffering U.S. Federal Treasury. I'm sorry about that, and I apologize. I know very well that nobody likes to pay taxes. Not even me. It hurts when it comes to writing that check. It's just that the the Representatives and Senators who seem to be the leading anti taxers are from Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17640392547149192352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89678584776320615.post-85742533671789136812011-05-08T05:48:00.001-07:002011-06-23T10:33:25.294-07:00In Those Days it was Even Harder to Get Southerners to Pay TaxesCurrent events lead me to jump many years forward in my posts. Newspaper articles are now warning us that Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana are threatened with disastrous flooding due to the unprecedented height of the Mississippi flood crests now rushing down on them. Today's NY Times article begins:
All eyes in the delta are on the Mississippi River and the bulge of water itAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17640392547149192352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89678584776320615.post-3706659281010379052011-04-14T11:47:00.001-07:002013-06-06T10:49:33.463-07:00I'm a Little Late in Learning About Early
Daniel Crofts's post about Jubal Early on the Times's Disunion blog (http://nyti.ms/efHRna) was the first I'd read about the "Bad Old Man" having been opposed to secession. Obviously, I should not have skipped the preface of Early's book about the war. Crofts tells us:
Viewed in retrospect, Early was the most improbable member of the anti-secession coalition that dominated the convention and Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17640392547149192352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89678584776320615.post-66561054935944926562011-04-14T08:25:00.001-07:002011-04-14T08:25:31.683-07:00The Rebel's Archives are Here, on this Beautiful CampusMost of Henry Brown Richardson's family papers are archived at the Hill Memorial Library at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge shown in the gallery below. The LSU campus is one of the most beautiful I've seen. Its giant oaks with their drooping limbs and moss is like a Louisiana dream. If you have a long research project, you can stay overnight at the Faculty Club. The lunches Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17640392547149192352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89678584776320615.post-48088193896879161922011-04-10T10:50:00.001-07:002011-04-10T10:50:39.780-07:00A Valuable Resource for Amateur and Professional Historians: The Civil War Book ReviewWhile looking for something else on the internet I happened across The Civil War Book Review, which is hosted on the site of Louisiana State University's Hill Library. The Civil war sesquicentennial now underway is bringing forth a stream of new books on the subject - so many that we will never have time to read them all, let alone the budgets to buy them or the shelves to hold them. In Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17640392547149192352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89678584776320615.post-67933558274890538342011-04-04T04:06:00.001-07:002011-04-09T03:01:12.619-07:00A Yankee's Conversion from Douglas Democrat to Solid SuccessionistRussell McClintock's recent post in the NY Times Opinionator blog (here http://nyti.ms/gtfF4a ) about Senator Stephen Douglas reminded me that Henry Brown Richardson had been a Douglas Democrat before he went to Louisiana. McClintock writes about Douglas's energetic efforts to avoid secession, and within that context, his support for Lincoln:For both patriotic and political reasons, the Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17640392547149192352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89678584776320615.post-78771027750374625812011-03-31T08:00:00.001-07:002011-03-31T08:00:10.401-07:00Krugman Blogs Appomattox: This Rebel Might Have AgreedKrugman begins: ...I’ve long had a special fascination, not with how the war began, but with its end. And on this day in 1865 Phil Sheridan began the flanking movement that culminated, just 11 days later, in Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. Why do I find this final campaign so fascinating? Partly because the battles of the Five Forks campaign ended up involving some of the very same Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17640392547149192352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89678584776320615.post-35690039130002595862011-03-29T02:13:00.001-07:002011-03-29T02:13:07.974-07:00This Yankee Rebel was Repulsed by Chicago in 1857 - Perhaps One Reason he Later Chose the SouthHenry arrived in Chicago in the evening of March 11, 1857. He was on his way to Milwaukee, where his employer, A. P. Marshal, had set up a new engineering office, after closing out his business in Portland, Maine. Henry had left Springfield, MA more than two days before on a cold and uncomfortable trip over four different railroads, so he was happy to find a bed in a hotel. Even Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17640392547149192352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89678584776320615.post-73599624897026862672011-03-21T09:02:00.001-07:002011-03-21T09:02:47.699-07:00A Quirk of Fate Led This Yankee to the South Where He Fought for the ConfederacyHenry probably had the picture on this page taken when he was visiting Hockanum, now part of Hadley, Massachusetts, in the Spring of 1859. He had stopped there for a few weeks to help with the heavy spring workload on his uncle William Richardson's farm. He would then go on to Boston to find work in his chosen profession, civil engineering. At that time, he could not yet Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17640392547149192352noreply@blogger.com0