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Posts from the ‘Editor’s Letter’ Category

Dec 3

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Bermuda Hundred Important Tour Information

My goal in the last issue on the Bermuda Hundred Driving Tour was simply to indicate where Ben Butler’s earthworks crossed W. Hundred Road. In doing so I violated a cardinal rule of The General’s Tour by including a site I did not personally visit, though I did observe the site 25 years ago while preparing our 1989 issue on Bermuda Hundred, and it appeared on that issue’s Tour Map. Once the 2014 Tour was laid out, I realized there was one set of earthworks not included that could complete a tour of Butler’s Final Line as it stretched north beyond W. Hundred Road (Rt. 10) toward the James River.

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Dec 2

Editors Letter: The Campaign and Battle of Tupelo

The following is the Editor’s Letter from The Battle of Tupelo, Volume 30, #6

The Campaign and Battle of Tupelo (or Harrisburg), Miss.

This is an interesting campaign full of twists and turns, revenge, military trickery, displays of incredible human endurance, command disputes with high-drama obstinacy, bungled assaults, new characterizations of an oft-ignored Union commander (and his oddly named troops), and a new perspective on the purpose of the campaign—one that includes the consummate Southern cavalryman Nathan Bedford Forrest.

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Jul 10

Editors Letter: The Battle of the Crater

The Battle of the Crater

This issue features one of the most brutal contests of the Civil War, displaying on the one hand the worst attributes of mankind, and on the other hand the kind of spunk and ingenuity that made America the greatest country on the globe. Then, as usual, politics got in the way to ruin a perfectly good plan.

The campaign in Virginia in the spring of 1864 pits Grant and Lee against each other for the first time. The recently appointed commander of all United States forces chooses to make his headquarters with the armies of the Eastern Theater to face the South’s greatest general.

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Mar 11

Editors Letter: The Gettysburg Town Fight

The following is the Editor’s Letter from The Gettysburg Town Fight, Volume 30, #3

Gettysburg Town Fight

While walking the streets of Gettysburg and seeing a small bronze plaque identifying a house or shop as a Civil War building, have you ever wondered who lived there during the battle, was it a home or a business (or both), were the occupants owners or tenants? Well, Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide Gerald Bennett experienced that, and did something about it.

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Feb 12

The following is the Editor’s Letter from Chancellorsville Pt.2, Volume 29, #5

Lee’s Greatest Victory

The reaction to last issue’s part one of a two-issue treatment of Chancellorsville, Blue & Gray’s choice to kick off the 1863 Civil War Sesquicentennial commemoration, has been highly favorable, and a curiosity to some readers. Longtime subscribers, some as far back as Vol. I, #1, were surprised to learn, or to realize, that during the past 30 years we had never done a feature on the battle.

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Feb 12

Editor’s Letter: Missionary Ridge

The following is the Editor’s Letter from Missionary Ridge, Volume 29, #6

Missionary Ridge

The topography in the Chattanooga area makes any campaign study fun and fascinating and tricky: a twisting river with numerous shallows; creeks narrow and deep; mountains and high ridges with gaps and rugged slopes; intermittent swamps and farmland and town features; treacherous roads and trails; railroads and tunnels and beanpole-and-cornstalk bridges—it’s an engineer officer’s nightmare. After five issues on the Chickamauga Campaign and one on the Tullahoma Campaign, one might think I’d be worn out with Chattanooga. But I just can’t stop mappin’ the place.

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Feb 12

Editor’s Letter: Salem Church

The following is the Editor’s Letter from Salem Church, Volume 30, #1

My Next Thirty Years

 

My late wife Robin and I started Blue & Gray soon after I turned 30 (she was 31). So, now that we’re in Vol. XXX, I’ve been editing and publishing this magazine for half my life. Robin died in 1998, from cancer, during the celebration period of our 15 years of publishing life, the midpoint of where we are today. After all that time, we can still feel her presence here at 522 Norton Road. She was indeed a larger than life character. Below is Robin at her B&G post in the mid-90s.

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