It's always great to take folks over there and introduce them into his amazing world. After all, how many folks do you know that have a couple of WWII planes assembled in their basement? ...Or machine guns? ...Or any of the rest? All boy toys, for sure. 

After visiting the McGavock Confederate Cemetery where so many of his comrades lay he wrote:

“We were met and taken from the railroad depot in carriages out to and around about the battlefield, and from there to the Confederate cemetery, a beautiful spot on a tree-crowned ridge.  To this peaceful, lovely spot these great-hearted people have removed, at their own expense, our dead from their graves on the field, and marked each soldier’s resting place with a neat head-stone.  Standing here under the trees and amid the graves, Major Aken, a gallant Tennessee soldier, said, ‘We could almost wish that we, too, had been killed in battle, so that we might be buried here.’”

I am very proud of this collection and have been offering a money-back guarantee to anyone who bought the book, read it and honestly could ay it was not worth the $25.00. No my publisher, but I made that deal. Funny thing, since I made the offer, not one person who bought a copy has asked for the their money back. Really not that surprising as Bob McDill said to me one day, "Tia Sillers' story alone is worth $25.00." I agree and would add most of the rest of the stories to such a list.  

So the question remains; do I extend my offer to France? 

Most of my day was 'spent' sitting right here, trying to edit and re-edit the new Carnton Book. This whole project has lasted longer than the American Civil War did. Seriously. 

Years ago someone talked the then director of the site into bringing the world-class photographer Bruce Wolf to Carnton to photograph the site. Turned out he needed two trips down here to do it. Out of his shoots came some of the handsomest photographs ever made of the site. While I was not sold on the project on the front end, there's no questioning Bruce Wolf's work. 

So after finally wrestling the project away from the chaos of the project manager and with the amazing, creative hard work of Brian Meneguza and rewriting the text (my part), the book will be out by November 1. Stay tuned and put it on your Holiday list. 

As we approach the launch Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War and the four years to follow, there will be much talk among historians and those interested in the Civil War about this battle or that battle. There will be much rehashing of the events and personalities that made up those four tumultuous and bloody years.

 Yet, for the rest of America – those who are neither historians nor from that interest group – is their any real reason to keep looking backwards? Does the American Civil War still have any value or impact as to who we are, what this nation is, good or bad?

The truth is, if the line to immigrate into this country is longer than the line to immigrate into any other country on earth, it is because of the American Civil War. The American Civil War is not something reserved for those whose ancestors fought on one side or the other or because our ancestors were freed from enslavement. The American Civil War is important if you came over from Ecuador last year. For if you are throwing your lot with this country, the American Civil War is at the foundation of why, whether you ever understand it or not.

My goal is to help us better understand why the Civil War matters at this time in our history as much as it ever has, if not even more. If we are to remain that nation that 620,000 men and boys died for, we must understand what they gave us through their sacrifice. 

Then, back home to work on the first of the essays I'm writing for G&G. Through it all am trying to stay cool -- a challenge these days, for sure!

Christoph and Rob are as good as it gets when it comes to being gracious to those around them. JUst outside the bar, hundreds of women stood through the night. Several tried to break in, but were taken out. It was crazy and fun and involved a lot of alcohol.