As I accept few speaking engagements anymore, it has been a little while since I posted a self-promotion piece.

I was asked back in December if I might be interested in speaking with the hosts of the ‘Battlefields and Bourbon Podcast.’ Unfamiliar with the podcast, I listened to several past programs and found the format to be very enjoyable and the hosts, Jack and Elijah, very engaging and very easy to listen to. Lifelong friends, they grew up near Winchester and still live and work in the area. The podcast is linked with The Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District. And who can argue with the pairing of history and bourbon, or, as they like to say, “sitting, sipping and talking all things Civil War.” Agreeing to speak with them, in a historic home in Winchester, was an easy decision and I encourage you to try their podcast.

I will warn you that I kind of ‘broke the bank,’ as the saying goes, and the program stretches well past the two hour mark. Sitting, sipping and talking Aldie, Middleburg and Upperville with Jack and Elijah proved to be simply too easy. Each episode features a different bourbon and a different battle or campaign of the war. Several break the format, however, and the hosts sit down with a distiller and simply talk about the process of making bourbon and running a distillery.

I encourage you to give their podcast a listen, whether you listen to us on their most recent episode or not.

I also want to mention that I will be speaking on October 3, 2026, at the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area’s annual ‘Art of Command in the Civil War’ conference. Receiving an invitation from Childs Burden to speak is always an honor. The focus this year is Partisan Warfare in Northern Virginia. In a conference centered around John Mosby, Childs has kindly allowed me to step outside of Mosby’s Confederacy and discuss partisan warfare from a Northern perspective along another front. I will save any further information until October 3. I hope to see some of you there.