Like Judson Kilpatrick and “Kill-Cavalry,” Alfred Pleasonton and “newspaper humbug” go together today like peanut butter and jelly. Unlike the questionable origin of Kilpatrick’s nom-de-guerre, we know exactly who pinned the tag line on Pleasonton and when. The larger question is why? On May 12, 1863, Capt. Charles Francis Adams, 1st Massachusetts, wrote “if you…

Friends of Cedar Mountain Battlefield will be hosting a 160th Anniversary Seminar July 28-30, 2022. The event is very well priced and offers several options of tours and presentations. The presenters include Michael Block, Benjamin Myers, Frank O’Reilly, Ron Coddington, Nick Picerno, Paige Gibbon Backus, Glenn Stach, and Jeff Wert. For complete information, please visit…

Eric Wittenberg advised me yesterday that is has had to cancel the tour scheduled for May 20-22. He had not received the interest he had hoped for and could not reserve a smaller bus to accommodate those who had signed up. Another tour is scheduled for October through Chambersburg Seminars and Tours. If interested you…

Three years ago, at a small gathering of like-minded friends, one asked if any of us knew the exact origin of Judson Kilpatrick’s nickname, ‘Kill-Cavalry.’ That is, when did the name first appear, and, if we thought we knew, did we have a contemporary source to prove our answer. Postwar accounts or memoirs did not…

Eric has advised that the main hotel for the tour and the location from where the bus will depart each morning is the Country Inn and Suites in Winchester at 141 Kernstown Commons Boulevard. You can find the hotel website here. You can also monitor Eric’s Wittenberg’s Facebook page for further information from time to…

Multi- day Cavalry Tour to be held May 20-22, 2022. We will be based in Winchester for this event. Each day’s tour will begin and end in Winchester. Friday, May 20, 2022: We will tour sites associated with the Battle of Brandy Station, including Kelly’s Ford, the site of St. James Church, Stevensburg, the Graffiti…

This link will provide an update on my new book, Small but Important Riots, The Cavalry Battles of Aldie, Middleburg, and Upperville, including a cover shot, publication date, and pricing. Rather than a simple revision of the earlier edition, that is a few scattered updates and refreshed maps, every page of this edition is new,…

As I worked to finish the final edits for the new edition of Small but Important Riots, I read a book review, in which the reviewer explained how, “A nonfiction author is a massive filtration system. You’re only as good as what you leave out.” A good friend, who had been patiently reading and offering…

As I have not provided an update regarding my book, Small but Important Riots, Aldie, Middleburg and Upperville, in quite a while, I thought I would so today. I signed a contract with Potomac Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press in October 2021, and I mailed the completed manuscript to the editor…

Some readers may find the first reported incident of Lt. Col. David Clendenin’s cowardice confusing, because the 8th Illinois, attached to Col. ‘Grimes’ Davis’s brigade, had accompanied Stoneman on his raid. So how had the regiment been in position to fire on Stoneman’s troopers when they returned to Union lines on May 8? Colonel Davis’s…