Month: August 2017
-
Looking for Major Blackford
Eugene Blackford is a fascinating character and it’s easy to get drawn into his life. I’m currently publishing his wartime letters, but I’m not the only one who’s interested in him. Here’s someone else, Jared Fuoss, who followed him also, with an emphasis on Gettysburg where he is a seasonal ranger. Studying at Gettysburg College […]
-
Did the Hunley’s Own Torpedo Kill Its Crew?
Intriguing article by a biomedical researcher at Duke University, whose research suggests that the crew of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley died from the effects of their own torpedo. … after an exhaustive three-year Duke study that involved repeatedly setting blasts near a scale model, shooting authentic weapons at historically accurate iron plate and doing […]
-
Dispatches from the (Second) Civil War
Which, let us pray, never actually comes to the shooting stage. Nevertheless the madness continues unabated, with statues and images that everyone has ignored for years suddenly becoming threatening. It’s beginning to look like some Banana Republic where people are disappeared in the middle of the night. Speaking of which, the University of Texas disappeared […]
-
The Volcanic Pistol
Ian at Forgotten Weapons takes an in-depth look at the Volcanic pistol, or rather several of them. In the mid-1850s the company manufactured a ten shot pistol that was not a revolver (and thus had no patent worries from Colt). It also brought together three men who would become giants in the firearms field, whose […]
-
Happenings in the Land of the Tarheels
I mentioned earlier that a group of vandals had pulled down a statue of a Confederate soldier in Durham. The good news is that the local sheriff has taken it seriously, arresting one woman a few days ago. Yesterday more people turned themselves in to face felony charges, bringing the total to eight. They of […]
-
Fast and Furious
Things have been happening so fast it’s almost impossible to keep up with it all. By now everyone will have heard of the events in Charlottesville, VA, where one person died in a riot (and two more in a helicopter crash). The immediate cause was a protest march by far right groups over the removal […]
-
Take ’em Down!
The takedown madness continues, and seems to be spreading like an old-fashioned plague. But first let’s take a glance at New Orleans, just lately freed from the oppressive grip of Confederate statues. Even without a hurricane or a really big storm, the city is flooding. Seems that the pumping stations aren’t working, a bad situation […]