Happy Memorial Day Weekend

Happy Memorial Day Weekend. Enjoy the days with family and friends. Indy 500, Picnic, cook out, party on. But take a moment to reflect on what this day means to you. Swing by a cemetery and pay respects to those loved ones who have gone before. In the Gettysburg Address it was said by President Lincoln that "We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate... we can not consecrate... we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government : of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".

Buy some small American flags and go decorate an unattended grave of a veteran. General John A. Logan, in his original Memorial Day order, said " Let no wanton foot tread rudely on such hallowed grounds. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and found mourners. Let no vandalism of avarice of neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten, as a people, the cost of free and undivided republic." and "Let us, then, at the time appointed, gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor"

Sunday Morning Civil War Link Dump

From Atlanta an article about a Civil War exhibit at the West Point Museum in New York


From Birmingham Law Suits dismissed


From Gettysburg an article about a replica chapel that burned down

From the Dispatch in Columbus an article about life long friends who met at Camp Chase

Quick recap of the Virginia Tech Civil War Conference

Sunday Morning Civil War Link Dump

From the Chicago Tribune an article about the Battle of Bull Run

From the Schenectady Daily Gazette an article about keeping the Civil War history alive.

From San Jose an article about a letter written by Maj. Gen. Robert Anderson, the Kentuckian who had surrendered Fort Sumter after a Confederate cannonade opened the bloody war.

An article about the Civil War being remembered...in Dublin Ireland

An article about The Epic Battle Between the 24th Michigan and 26th North Carolina at Gettysburg.

At Oberlin College a Civil War History Walk

From Charleston SC an article about Confederate Memorial Day

Also from Charleston an article about ending the holiday.

The Mighty Thor

I went and saw Thor this morning. After hearing mostly bad comments at work about this I went in with a sense of dread about this. I was more than pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed it. The effects were really good, the music was great and the story was pretty well done.

Natalie Portman plays the very sweet Jane Foster and she looks as hot as usual. Chris Hemsworth plays the title role pretty well. He put me in mind of Heath Ledger.

They threw a couple of bones in along the way (as usual)and they were pleasant surprises. Pay attention for a S.H.E.I.L.D. (***Bonus points for the new SHIELD Acronym) agent named Clint Barton and also stay for the cookie at the end of the credits.

It ended up being a pretty good trip to the movies today. We found an AMC card at the house that had never been used so the tickets and concessions basically cost us $4.00. Then as we were leaving the gave us passes for another ticket because of a sound issue (that really wasn't an issue) so we'll get to go to another movie (Captain America?) for free.

I am really looking forward to the release of Captain America and then the Avengers movie when it gets released next year. Go see it. I give it 3 and 3/4 Floyds.








***Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.

Hail Adventurer, Well Met

Hail Adventurer,

I am writing this missive to you under the most trying of circumstances. I have been taken captive by an unscrupulous band of disloyal and unappreciative workers. One of my business interests had mentioned your name in a conversation recently and I am reaching out to you for assistance.

I will pay you the sum of one thousand gold pieces for my rescue. Also, a bounty of five hundred gold for the head of every one of my captors brought to my office in Saltmarsh will be paid.

I must caution you that there may be others looking for me who have less than honorable intentions.

Your obedient servant,

Waenniliel from Petikas Manor

Sunday Morning Civil War Link Dump

From Ohio Civil War 150 an article about life in the Western Reserve from the earliest times until the end of the Civil War.

From the Gainesville Times an article about restoring Grant's Tomb.

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch an article about the Civil War in Virgina's Piedmont.

Pamplin Park is a place all students of the Civil War should go

Happy Mother's Day

Hey all you bums, be sure to wish your mom and/or wife Happy Mother's Day today. We are nothing without them in our lives.

Last WWI combat soldier called home

Claude Choules, the only remaining male veteran of World War I and one of the last people to have served in both world wars, died May 5 at a nursing home near Perth in western Australia. He was 110, and no cause of death was reported.

The former seaman, who was underage when he signed up for duty, witnessed the surrender of the German Imperial Navy in 1918. He also watched as German sailors scuttled their own fleet at Scapa Flow, near Scotland, to avoid having the ships fall into British hands after the war.

Read More here


The Soldier

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Happy Cinco de Mayo. Hoist some sort of drink and have a great day!!

Osama Bin Laden

With the death of Bin Laden what happens now? I fully expect some sort of retaliation by the terrorists, probably in early July. We have to be cautious in the celebration to remember Al-Qaeda was not killed that day. They will be heard from again. But I think that America gains a little closure with this move, some much needed closure a decade after the worst sucker punch of all time. I just wonder what Osama's thoughts were when he woke up in Hell without his 72 virgins?

Sunday Morning Civil War Link Dump

From the St. Louis Post Dispatch an article about infamous spy Belle Boyd.

From USA Today, and article about peoples famous Civil War ancestors.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer an article about the first casualty of the Civil War from Pennsylvania.

Also from Philly a look at Philadelphia in the Civil War.