I’ve recently come back to an old hobby that I gave up years ago.

Photography.

I’ve picked up my camera once again and started taking pictures.  Lately the poor cats have been my subjects but I’m venturing off to new and exciting things.

Wheat Field at Antietam

As you have seen from recent posts, I have not written about running. I’ve been taking a little break since the marathon in October. It’s been good, but I don’t have anything more in particular to say about it. Just been running a little. Like I’m sure many of you, I am thinking ahead to 2010 and what races I want to do battle with…so many to choose from. Isn’t THAT great. I’m also thinking of raising money for charity again. Last time I did it was in 2005 for the SF Marathon. I raised over $5000 so I was really pleased and enormously grateful to all who donated. The donations went to Children’s Hospital in Oakland, CA. I have a special interest in that place. Nevertheless, having said that, I am wondering what charity, what cause, do I want to put my energy and legs into? Do I chose the same one? As opposed to how great it is that there are sooo many races to choose from, it’s quite daunting to try and decide what CAUSE  to get behind. There are so many in need; so many causes that are all more worthy than I can even begin to comprehend. I’m not even sure I WILL raise money again, but all of this is certainly on my radar.  I will definitely post about it so stay tuned.

So, back to the battlefield. Kennesaw Battlefield, that is. I texted Jeff on Friday asking if he wanted to meet. We’ve been trying to meet up and just haven’t connected lately. We actually hadn’t seen each other since about September. Hmmm.. I wonder if he was avoiding me cause he KNEW that HILL pain would be involved… hee hee. He texted me back asking when and where. “10am. Kennesaw. rain or shine.”

It had been pretty ugly and cold out so who knew what we were in for on the trails. Actually, it rained all day on Friday but the trails were not as wet/muddy as I thought they would be. I purposely DID NOT wear my new Adidas Trail shoes. I JUST couldn’t bear to get them all muddy just yet. So. I had my old ones on.

Found Jeff at 10am right on the nose. Isn’t it wonderful when you can count on people??!! Love that about Jeff! Since we both have not been running much, we decided to just go 5 miles. And let me tell you, 5 miles at Kennesaw is pretty damn good. All hilly! And, oh…the hills make you remember quickly. I hadn’t been out there for about a year…not since I had done my training for the Chattanooga 50k Trail race. I commented to Jeff that it looked so different out there at this time of year….the trails in their winter dress..barren, still and almost an eerie quiet. We didn’t talk much as we plotted one foot in front of the other, up and down and up and down. How comforting it was to be there with my friend, running side by side in the cold of the Battlefield…each of us with our own quiet thoughts and experience, but still, together.

Soon enough, we were back at the start. I don’t know the mileage cause I was not wearing my Garmin, but time was 58:36…so I’m thinking 5.5-6 miles

I said to Jeff; “you know you’re a runner when you come and run tough miles and you’re not training for anything.”

Jeff: “oh, we’re training for something. we just don’t know what yet.”

Ahhh…so true!

Here we are post run. Thanks, buddy!

Well, what a day it has been.

I arrived at the coach station over an hour early (earliness is the British way, don’t you know), and waited. And waited some more. And some more. Until finally ‘Guichet L’ was open. Then I waited some more. And some more. Then boarded my coach. This was followed by more waiting. Then we set off, into the snowy landscape of Paris. It really was something. If I wasn’t so sick of the sight of the place, I’d have taken some photos. But I was sat next to someone, and I’d have looked weird. So, yes, we continued our epic voyage to Calais. None of us knew what lay in store. I observed that France, in general, is very flat and nothingy. Don’t get me wrong, it looks nice, but it’s so incredibly nothingy. We passed Vimy Ridge, which brought back fond memories from the Year 10 Battlefields trip. Anyway, we finally got to Calais (after stopping at a service station, and traipsing through the snow). This is where we hit our little hiccough.

The first issue was whether we would take the ferry or the shuttle. We were taking the shuttle. This instilled fear into me, as I had already experienced one let down courtesy of the channel tunnel. We progressed. Then stopped. At customs. We were all told to disembark the coach, and proceed to customs. With our luggage. Seriously. I felt like I was being registered for a labour camp. Noone helped us. This is where my English attitude kicked in. No more “Merci”, no more “Bonsoir” :  just “Tar” and “Hullo”. That’ll teach you, France. I think they should consider changing their motto from “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” to “France : causing problems for over 1000 years”, or something along those lines. Anyway. The woman I was sat next to, never returned ; turns out, the police detained her, and we never saw her again. Noone knows why, she just was. Anyway, next step : UK passport control. Seriously. Our passports were just checked by the French, but apparently they’re not thorough enough, so the UK passport service checked ours. We just made it through, and just missed a train. So we waited. And waited. And got on the train. And waited. And waited. And then got to London. Finally. 2 hours late. So, I rushed to Victoria tube station (deceptively far away from the coach station), got my ticket (Tube ticket = £4! Actually outraged!), rushed to King’s Cross. I explained my situation to the man, cos I had booked a ticket for yesterday, he told me to go to St. Pancras. Noone there. Went back, he signed something, and off I go. Here was another potential issue. I was unsure if I was allowed in first class still. But, as it happens, the woman let me off.

So, after 7 metro rides, 2 train rides and 1 coach ride later, I am nearly home. 1 car journey is left to make, from Doncaster to HOME and then I can sleep. Or drink Ribena/Apple Tango/real milk. I am too excited.

At present, I am in First Class, drinking my second cup of free tea. Love it.

Arrivederci, France, or whatever you guys say over there.

**UPDATE** As I wrote about my second cup of free tea, I was offered a third. I did not refuse. No sleep for me!

The Crone’s Christmas decorations seem to to have settled some old scores while locked up in the shed January to December. There are signs of serious scrapping, resulting in the kind of injuries more usually spotted on battlefields than in nativity scenes.

The ass has suffered an Evander Holyfield–someone or something has ripped off his ear, making him the Vincent Van Gogh of the manger.

Poor little Donkey, Christmas, 2009

Who is responsible for this carnage? Among the suspects must be two of the three wise men, who seem to have scarpered over the summer months, leaving the stable scene a little short. The Christmas fairy too has sustained serious injury–an organza-clad Heather Mills, hanging by a golden thread.

The one-legged fairy

No-one is prepared to talk–although there must be a reasonable chance that one of the snowmen will cave in…

The upshot of all this however, is a Christmas scene that celebrates the differently abled. Who says you need two legs or both ears to celebrate the season?

This November I was alerted to the fact that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission has decided to experiment with four cemeteries in Belgium and France, to look at how they might appear if predictions on climate change are correct; lonh periods of drought meaning that maintaining the ‘English Garden’ look might prove impossible. As this is such a fundamental core what these cemeteries and memorial sites are about, it has caused much discussion such as here:

Great War Forum

and:

World War 2 Talk

To say the least, the look of Railway Chateau Cemetery, shown in the above video, is startling for anyone used to the calm serenity of Great War cemeteries. Such a radical change, if it is ever adopted, would change the look and ‘feel’ of these sites forever. More information on CWGC’s own site:

CWGC

I meant to write about the discovery of the actual site of the battle of Bosworth a while ago but what with one thing and another, it totally slipped from my mind but NO LONGER. Not that I have much to add, you understand, but since when have I let that stop me?

I was really interested to hear about Bosworth because my grandmother was a devoted and slightly obsessive Ricardian. A Ricardian being the silly technical name given to people who are obsessed with Richard III and determined to prove that actually he was a really nice guy and couldn’t possibly have done any of the nasty things that history and Shakespeare attribute to him. They call it rehabilitation, I call it white washing as, let’s face it, I don’t think it was possible for a Medieval monarch to ever be as white as snow and especially not one living in the dark and dangerous times of the Wars of the Roses.

Anyway, it made for an interesting childhood as I was dragged on regular pilgrimages to places associated with Richard: the Tower of London, Fotheringay, Alnwick, Raby, York Minster, Tewkesbury and, my favourite, Middleham Castle in Wensleydale, a romantic ruin where the grass seems permanently dewy thanks to the perpetual rain.

There were visits to Bosworth of course and I spent many hours tramping around the fields, looking for skeletons (I never found one, which isn’t surprising if we were in the wrong place really) and hoping to see a ghost. In fact, we spent a lot of time at battlefields during my formative years – Culloden, Sedgemoor, Glencoe, Flodden, Naseby, Edgehill, Long Marston and then later on the Somme and Agincourt. Dank, wet, miserable fields where the odd and eerie silence is broken only by the sound of the birds overhead and the cars driving past.

Battlefields
Battlefields

Battlefields Game
Battlefields Game Description : Shoot everything that moves and make points.
How to Play Battlefields Game? Arrow Keys – Move.
Mouse – Aim / Shoot.
Spacebar – Bomb (Purchase).

Never read a graphic novel before? Haven’t read a comic book in years?

Here’s some brand new stuff that came out the week of October 21 that I think is worth a look-see for someone with little to no history with comics. That means you should be able to pick any of these up cold without having read anything else. So take a look and see if something doesn’t grab your fancy. If so, follow the publisher links or Amazon.com links to buy yourself a copy. Or, head to your local friendly comic book shop.

Disclaimer: For the most part, I have not read these yet, so I can’t vouch for their quality. But, from what I’ve heard and seen, odds are good they just might appeal to you.

Dread & Superficiality: Woody Allen as Comic Strip – $35.00
By Stuart Hample
240 pages; published by Abrams ComicArts; available at Amazon.com

Woody Allen’s classic neurosis, humorous life philosophy, and complex relationships, are embodied in the classic comic strip “Inside Woody Allen,” syndicated daily by King Features from 1976 to 1984, illustrated by Stuart Hample. Dread & Superficiality: Woody Allen as Comic Strip is a compilation of 220 of the best of the comic’s comics, all reproduced from the original art, along with sketches, photographs, and development work.

An all-new preface by Hample provides a rare glimpse into the creation of this material, revealing a long-overlooked facet of Allen’s career that is smart and funny and as timeless as the man who has inspired a generation with his unique vision.

For all of those Woody Allen fans out there. I didn’t even know this comic strip existed until now. There are samples at both the publisher and Amazon links above, although the images aren’t really big enough to read, which is kind of lame.

Sugarshock – $3.50
By Joss Whedon & Fabio Moon
40 pages; published by Dark Horse Comics

Originally presented in the first online issues of MySpace Dark Horse Presents, for which it won the Eisner Award for Best Web Comic, Sugarshock tells the story of a rock band led by charismatic but crazy Dandelion Naizen, a hyperactive singer/songwriter possessed of a mean hatred of Vikings (don’t ask) and a mission for a secret government agency that may only exist in her head. But when her band, which includes a robot bass player, is enlisted in an intergalactic battle of the bands — emphasis on battle — Dandelion gets to prove herself as both singer and soldier.

This is Joss Whedon at his funniest and most hyperactive, with writing that bursts off the page in a way seldom seen in comics. Multiple Eisner Award winner Fábio Moon delivers the outrageous story with equal energy, as well as providing a fourteen-page look at his process, with never-before-seen character designs, page layouts, and promotional images.

For all of those Joss Whedon fans out there. If you thought Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog was silly, this is downright zany. The comic may not have a soundtrack (as of this writing, you never know), but it’s still entertaining. Here’s a 3-page preview. Or you can check out the story here on MySpace Dark Horse Presents.

Battlefields Volume One – $29.99
By Garth Ennis, Russ Braun, Peter Snejbjerg & Carlos Ezquerra
268 pages published by Dynamite Entertainment; available at Amazon.com

All three acclaimed Ennis Battlefields books in one massive hardcover collected edition!

BATTLEFIELDS: THE NIGHT WITCHES
By Garth Ennis, Russ Braun and Tony Avina!
Late summer, 1942. As the German army smashes deep into Soviet Russia and the defenders of the Motherland retreat in disarray, a new bomber squadron arrives at a Russian forward airbase. Its crews will fly flimsy wooden biplanes on lethal night missions over German lines, risking fiery death as they fling themselves against the invader- but for these pilots, the consequences of capture will be even worse. For the pilots of the 599th Night Bomber Regiment are women. In the deadly skies of the Eastern front, they will become a legend- known, to friend and foe alike, as the Night Witches.

BATTLEFIELDS: DEAR BILLY
By Garth Ennis, Peter Snejbjerg and Rob Steen!
1942: In the tropical splendour of the South China sea, as the Second World War spreads across the far east, a young woman finds herself in paradise… and then in hell. Nurse Carrie Sutton is caught up in the Japanese invasion of Singapore, suffering horrors beyond her wildest nightmares- and survives. Now she attempts to start her life anew, buoyed up by a growing friendship with a wounded pilot- only for fate to deliver up the last thing she ever expected. Carrie at last has a chance for revenge… but should she take it? In the midst of a world torn apart by war, you can fight and you can win- but you still might not get the things you truly want.

GARTH ENNIS’ BATTLEFIELDS: THE TANKIES #1
By Garth Ennis, Carlos Ezquerra and Tony Avina!
After D-Day came the battle for Normandy, when largely untried Allied soldiers met the seasoned veterans of the German army. As Panzer units and SS troops turn the French countryside into a killing ground, a lone British tank crew struggle to rejoin their squadron. Cut off behind enemy lines, their only hope lies in their fearsome commander, Corporal Stiles- but no one in the crew can stand him, and Stiles isn’t too fond of them either. And there are Tigers lurking in the undergrowth…

This massive 200+ Page Hardcover Edition also features bonus materials such as sketches and commentary from Ennis along with a complete cover gallery by series cover artists John Cassaday and Garry Leach! Recommended for Mature Readers.

Here’s some war comics for you. Yay war! Not really, but some compelling stories can come of it. Garth Ennis is a well-read writer who seems genetically hardwired for this genre. There’s a great big 12-page preview at the publisher’s link above.

Detectives Inc. – $24.99
By Don McGregor, Marshall Rogers & Gene Colan
160 pages; published by IDW Publishing; available at Amazon.com

Detectives Inc. is the groundbreaking story of two New York private detectives, Ted Denning and Bob Rainier. It is as provocative and relevant today as when it was first released nearly 30 years ago. Detectives Inc. was one of the first graphic novels to deal realistically with homosexuality, bisexuality, abortion, race relations, and domestic violence. Featuring stunning art by comic greats Marshall Rogers and Gene Colan.

This reprints two graphic novels, one from 1980 and one from 1985. To be honest, this is the first I recall hearing about them but they were historically significant early steps of comics reaching out to the book market in graphic novel form and reaching beyond the superhero genre in a mass market outlet. And it helps that it was, by most accounts, very well-done.

The Waiting Place: The Definitive Edition – $29.99
By Sean McKeever & Mike Norton
456 pages; published by IDW Publishing; available at Amazon.com

Collected for the first time in a single volume, this highly-acclaimed teen drama of spinning wheels and racing hearts helped make Eisner Award-winning writer Sean McKeever (Spider-Man Love Mary Jane, Teen Titans) and fan-favorite artist Mike Norton (Green Arrow/Black Canary, Runaways) into mainstream comic-book mainstays. This edition also includes a brand-new story by McKeever and Norton, making it a must-have for long-time fans and new readers alike.

These comics first came out in 1997, and have since won a lot of praise. There’s a good article/interview with McKeever that gives a 3-page preview of the new story right here.

Cowboy Ninja Viking #1 – $3.50
By A.J. Lieberman & Riley Rossmo
32 pages; published by Image Comics

It started with Dr. Sebastian Ghislain: rogue psychotherapist/covert op/DJ. Tasked with creating a counter-intelligence unit, he turned to those long thought useless to society… patients with Multiple Personality Disorder. These agents became known simply as Triplets. Misguided? Yeah. Impractical? Sure. But did it work? Absolutely not. Now someone has located each Triplet and created a band of ridiculously disturbed, but highly effective assassins. Our only hope? A Triplet known as Cowboy Ninja Viking!

OK enough of all of that somber realistic stuff. Here’s some weird action/adventure for you. 9-page preview right here. I think this actually came out the week before but it’s on my list, so you get to hear about it now.

Lenore: Noogies – $17.95
By Roman Dirge
128 pages; published by Titan Publishing; available at Amazon.com

Take a trip into the dark, surreal world of a little dead girl with a knack for (often) unintentional mayhem in this gothic classic, now remastered and colored up by creator Roman Dirge for the very first time!

Lenore might only be small, but her talent for mischief — and occasional wanton destruction — is anything but. Featuring stories about limbless cannibals, clock monsters, cursed vampire dolls, taxidermied friends, an obsessed would-be lover and more fuzzy animal mutilations than should be legal, never has the term ‘something for everyone’ seemed more sinister and bizarre.

A massive cult hit on both sides of the Atlantic, Lenore is one of the funniest, darkest, cutest, creepiest characters on the marketplace today, and this collector’s edition hardcover is a must.

If were doing these lists in a more timely fashion, you would’ve heard about this in time for Halloween. But I ruined everything. Still, this is worth checking out any time of the year.

Comic Diorama – $5.00
By Grant Reynolds
48 pages; published by Top Shelf Productions

Nautical and astronomical themes abound in this collection of five short tales: the long lost journals of famed explorer/adventurer Chance Oxblood; the most significant year in the life of the personified former-planet Pluto; strange happenings in the Black Forest; mermaid dreams and sacrificial rites to a Grendel; and the tribulations of a recovering alcoholic gone model-building novice.

I flipped through a friend’s copy of this and it looks fantastic, at times bizarre and crazy. In fact, here, you can take a look too.

Friday I played tour guide to Katie’s parents, who hired a car to take them to the battlefield of El-Alamein for the day. Although the battlefield proper is closed (due to some 17.2 million landmines and unexploded ordinance just laying about), the war memorials are interesting enough and the drive pleasant enough to make a nice long day of the whole thing. Besides, it’s an article opportunity: in addition to the camel market article I’m working on, I might as well tack on an El-Alamein one.

We left around 10:45 from Sporting, with a driver that took us through the Agami road to the monastery of Mari Mina. There, the bodies of the Coptic hierarchy are interred —  and I figured that the Friday atmosphere would allow all to see Copts at their most Coptic (“High” Mass is sang on Fridays as well as on Sunday). After a fire that destroyed much of the monastery, the glittering white edifice that is the modern complex was built in 1959, including the present cathedral church, which is a splendid building of red and gray Aswani granite, covered on the inside with tasteful mosaics and iconography — not as common as you might think in Coptic Churches (if you ask me). Most Coptic icons tend to verge on the cartoonish, some even looking like anime depictions of the Holy Family.

After getting our whiff of incense of incense from the ongoing Mass, we ducked downstairs to the crypt, which was thronging with shoeless believers (Copts remove their shoes at holy places: the sanctuary, tombs of saints). There was a display of the finest order: something between a museum and a memorial wall. The last pope (Cyril) and one bishop (whose name I’ve forgotten) are encased in miraculously fragrant tombs: believers approach the sarcophaguses and place their foreheads on them, whispering their prayers down and coming away with the musk from the tomb on them. The walls are lined with glass casings displaying the two holy men’s clothes, favorite slippers, and glasses, as well as vestments for holy offices, and festooned with flashing Christmas lights, paintings and flowers and wreaths left by the faithful. It’s quite a sight, though a little disconcerting with its mix of crazy popular religious feeling and intense traditional solemnity.

Unless you’re a Coptic pilgrim (note: Nov 11 is Mar Menas’ Day, which is the moulid), there’s no real reason to see the modern monastery. What you want to see (if you’re a tourist, that is) is the ancient monastery.

You walk out the big battered iron gate that separates the dirty variety of desert from the monastery. You walk for thirty minutes over hills and midden piles of Roman pottery that goats graze over. Occasional puddles of muddy water. And just as the dust makes you sneeze and you begin to doubt that there’s anything actually out there, you stumble on it: a whole city of limestone, brick Roman baths, occasional slabs of glittering marble: it’s a complete city that looks like someone took a hacksaw to the foundation.

This is the site of the third-century monastery, the springs that rose up when the ashes of the Coptic martyr Menas were laid to rest here. Because of it’s location on the coastal road from Alexandria to Marsa (which was also a prominent port in the Roman period), it became a central trading point– and the miraculous healing waters, a pilgrimage site. But the wells dried up, and in the eleventh century, the place was reduced to an Ozymandias-like shadow in the desert, the local amirs and caliphs stripping the ruins of its marble columns to make their own mosques, leaving what was once called “The City of Jasper” to more humble monks in the desert once more.

After dusting off our boots and climbing back in to our car, we followed the road past the Abu Sir lighthouse (the last Greek lighthouse in Egypt, a tenth-scale, ancient prototype of the famous Pharos), and settled in for the drive to El-Alamein, which always takes longer than you expect.

Last time I visited the El-Alamein War Museum (which is a gem of a museum, by the way), Norman, Charlie, Kate, and I had about ten minutes to zip through the thing– because the place was closing at 3. It’s quite a wonderful collection of rooms that is pretty well-informed, if awkwardly written sometimes, which all of its paraphernalia taken from the battlefield. Outside, a collection of tanks and various vehicles from the battlefield are ready to pose with.

Unfortunately, the guards were insistent that they close the museum at 2:30 — for what reasons, I cannot imagine why. I’ve never seen someone so insistent about lunch, and no amount of pleading about Katie’s parents coming all the way from England (and no amount of lying about their grandfather being in the battle) could convince them. The officer in charge kept saying, “This is the army and this is how we do things.” My only thought (and this is the old First Sergeant in me coming out): Your shoes are so scuffed that they’re white at the tips, your brass has no polish, and your patches are fastened with safety pins = You have no authority, you funny man.

Inside the cloister of the British War Memorial at El-Alamein

The cemeteries, gracefully, are open at all times to any that visit them, and for me, this was a chance to wander through the British and German ones again, and finally see the Italian one. In my mind, all of the monuments seem to reflect something of the national character of the nation to which they belong: the British one is almost understated, about order, and is extremely bright and clean.

You go down a causeway to to a cloister that overlooks the markers. Each headstone has the crest of the soldier’s unit, his name, rank, serial number, birth and death dates, and a personal inscription that the family as written. Most are pretty standard quotes from Scripture, or sentiments of loss but they really tear you apart sometimes in their simplicity — and the effect of the place.

Some of the most poignant, I thought:

“Thy will be done.”
“No greater love hath man.”
“In all the silent moments, we remember him.”
“I have fought the good fight.”
“Not good-bye, but good-night.”

War graves at El-Alamein. Graves belonging to Polish support forces are actually pointed, as opposed to rounded.

The German memorial, on the other hand, is extremely Teutonic. It’s a giant castle-like edifice, enclosed and imposing, wrought-iron torches and an obelisk in the central courtyard. Big, black, maltese-falcon type eagles. Kind of scary, really. Instead of individual markers, the names of German provinces have tombs, and the names of all the soldiers are listed en masse on massive green-tarnished copper plates. The only thing I can say is that it feels very…German.

Outside the German mausoleum

These I’ve already seen. What was the most shocking was the Italian memorial. It’s positively enormous: huge marble front with a long causeway that you have to walk up towards. At least fifteen stories high. Slick, polished marble everywhere with a giant reception hall that echoes everything, a huge cross soaring above you. There are two rooms that list the Italian dead in mausoleum-like boxes, whole rooms labeled “Ignoto,” for unknowns.

Corridors of "Ignoto": haunting, really.

When I say that the memorial was shocking I think I mean that it was the most callous: the British one was about identity, I think (with each headstone meticulously detailed). The German one was about dignity, tradition (it seemed like a temple in which one could grieve over war). But the Italian one seemed less about Italians than it did about Italy. It seemed to be the most fascist of the monuments, and anyone that’s seen a photograph of Victor Emmanuel square can probably back me up.

Welcome to the site devoted to Great War Lives by Paul Reed, a new book to be published by Pen & Sword in Autumn 2010/Spring 2011. The site will follow the research, writing and publication of this book which will examine the stories of various soldiers, sailors and airmen who fought and died in the First World War.

As the site develops it will make the book available to purchase, provides links and tips on research, and include supplementary information and photographs where space did not allow their inclusion in the final published title.

Book-mark the site now to stay in touch!

Saturday I was out at Ellwood, on the Wilderness battlefield, for a program on Civil War medicine. It was cool and sprinkling rain off and on, so the Designated Dog was Zille, because Tink Doesn’t Do Rain. Or cold. Or staying in the car, which Zille had to do after a walk around the grounds, because the program was inside.


Floyd was my tour guide for the house, one of the knowledgeable volunteers with Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield. He took a small group of us including visitors from as far away as Minnesota through the restored downstairs of the house.

A section of unrestored wall at the house, showing 4×4 oak studs and the original lathe and plaster construction. The current house was originally built in 1775.

The path leading down to the cemetery and the grave of Stonewall Jackson’s left arm. No, I’m not kidding. His chaplain when he was wounded at Chancellorsville was a member of the family that owned Ellwood at the time. Mr. Lacy saw the arm lying in a pile of severed limbs outside the hospital tent where Gen. Jackson had been taken and carried it off to bury it at the family farm.

John, the gentleman giving the program on Civil War medicine. He’s what you might call a free-lance living historian; he doesn’t have a regular re-enactment unit that he’s part of. Instead, he gives presentations on Civil War medicine to any group who invites him: schools, and even a women’s group. He said that it was “really different” for them, “since they usually had someone come talk about flowers or something.”

The contents of his medicine chest: iodine, oil of turpentine, quinine, paregorie, morphine, opium, and mercurous chloride.

Trepanning tools. The two large items in the center are for drilling out and removing relatively large chunks of skull. Just above them is a device for lifting depressed skull fractures; just above that is the edge of a mask for administering chloroform. On the left edge of the photo, you can see part of a small saw for removing the bits of bone you’ve lifted.

It was a really good afternoon and time well-spent, with many little nuggets of fact added to my accumulated store of Things I Know About The Civil War. For example: most of us think of amputation as the first thing a Civil War surgeon resorted to in the case of a wounded limb, but this was not necessarily the case. American doctors had read the literature coming out of the Napoleonic wars and would triage limbs, checking to see if they could feel a pulse below the wound and if they could get the bullet out. If both of these things were true, odds were good you would keep your limb. Also, much has been made of the fact that conditions were filthy because germ theory wasn’t understood yet, but John made a good point: minie balls were known to go through the soft tissue of one man, carrying a plug of his flesh and shreds of his uniform, and lodge themselves in the soldier behind him. Even when that didn’t happen, these massive caliber bullets carried bits of the soldier’s own uniform and gear deep into the wound. The doctors were probably not significantly adding to the germ problem when they then probed the wound with their bare fingers, although sterile post-operative care might have prevented further amputations and deaths due to sepsis.

Also interesting to hear was that sepsis was not an automatic death sentence, but the effectiveness of the treatments was accidental. Septic wounds smelled bad, and things like turpentine and carbolic acid were applied (OW) to make them smell better. The fact that these things also tended to kill the bacteria causing the problem was merely a fortuitous side-effect of the treatment.

At any rate, it was definitely an enjoyable time, although sadly not as well-attended as it could have been. This was probably partly due to the weather and partly due to a lack of publicity, I can’t believe there’s so few Civil War Bores living in this area.

My reading pile has grown with the addition of a couple boxes from Amazon. In the queue, in no particular order:
The Slaves’ War: The Civil War in the Words of Former Slaves by Andrew Ward

Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made by Eugene Genovese

John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry: A Brief History with Documents by Jonathan Earle

I have thrown them all over for the moment to wallow in fiction, although at least it does contain some Civil War content! At the moment I’m reading Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker, set in the Clockwork Century. I have given myself permission to wallow in fiction until Monday at which point I need to read up on John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry because holy crap, that’s coming up in just over a week.

I mean, the raid itself obviously isn’t what with it happening in 1859 and all, but the Sesquicentennial is and marks the Official Beginning of Sesquicentennial Madness. Alas I will not be doing the 6 mile march retracing the steps of John Brown and his band of insurrectionists the night of the 16th. There is no way I could take one of my canine hiking buddies, what with the buses, and all the humans of my acquaintance have pretty much intimated that they think anyone walking 6 miles in the dark in the name of bonding with a bunch of guys who have been dead for a little under 150 years is, not to put to fine a point upon it, weird. But I will definitely be there on Saturday the 17th of October, with Zille because I anticipate more walking than Tink can handle without getting gimpy.

This weekend I’ll be at Ellwood, on the Wilderness battlefield, for presentation on Civil War medical technique. I’m not sure which dog is going to that one, but odds are if you see a woman wandering around with a large hairy beast, it’s me. By my dogs ye shall know me.

The weekend after Harpers Ferry there’s a guided battlefield walk at Manassas and a special opening of Old Salem Church here in Fredericksburg. I might make it to the second but will unfortunately have to skip the first as I’ll be recovering from minor surgery.

I think things will finally slow down in November and give me a chance to really catch up on the pile of books that’s accumulating. Of course, I’m also pretty sure I will have added to the pile of books by then. Books are one of my greatest downfalls.

LAST MINUTE THURSDAY NIGHT ADDITION: …yes, I do write these things in advance if I’m smart, and schedule them to post at 0400. It’s not like I’m actually coherent at that hour, I don’t even get up til 0415.

Anyway, hat tip to Kevin Levin’s entry at Civil War Memory for this one. Mr. Levin runs an excellent blog with occasional flashes of hilarity.

I will admit to a certain guilty enjoyment of this song. Also the video is inadvertently hilarious. The guitarist is clearly a Serious Folk Artist, the woman on mandolin looks like she’s having fun, but the guy with the upright bass is possibly a zombie.

I finally made it to Maldon today, it is a nice little town which doesn’t know much about it’s historic past.

The battle at Maldon in AD 991, was fought between the Saxon forces the earldorman of Essex, Byrhtnoth and a Viking army lead by Olaf Tryggvason.

The accepted site of the Battle in Maldon, hasn’t changed since AD991 and is the oldest recorded in the English Heritage register of battlefields.

I took a number of photos of the battlefield and I can understand why the Saxons chose to make a stand, where they did.  The photos include a couple panoramas of the site, which I have to put together when I get back to Australia, next week.

Here is the plaque commemorating the Battle.  Keep an eye out for my future posting, which will include a full review of the battlefield walk and surrounds, including pictures.

Plaque commemorating the Battle of Maldon.

Kind of sad that the plaque sits on a farm gate.

Between Luther and Fargo, Twinkie, Muad’dib and I stopped by the 331 club and had some fancy drinks.  Bloody Mary’s for them, and a Mamosa for me.

Then back on the road.  (Drink responsibly and know your limits)

Vintage style posters…

Vintage style cash box…

We’ve been around this block before so we already knew it’d be fun.  Jade brought us up again and low and behold, it was a rap show.

These guys didn’t even bother to stick around for the whole show so I don’t mind talking a little shit here.  I can’t believe rappers are still singing along to their album tracks!  Please stop lip syncing!

Still, I’m grateful and appreciative of the energy and it sounds like your mixtape is probably going to bang.  Just get your show right.

Then….

and after Big Quarters…

^^^^I know, I know, I know….. blurry again^^^^

Oh, and by the way, we have all this stuff at EVERY SHOW.  Sometimes more!  Right now the 10 years strong hoodies are just 20 dollars if you pick one up at a show.  (I’ll be working on the online ordering part of this stuff soon)

Meeting new people is half the fun.  Friends of friends become just friends.

I didn’t forget your picture!

Oh snap!  Is that a new TMF Opposition shirt?

A big special thanks has to go to Rob, who was the soundman for the nights show.  He made Peter’s kick drum sound magical.  Rick Ruben would have applauded.  Rob is part of a band which can be found here –> http://www.myspace.com/battlefieldsdoom

THANKS ROB!!!

I scored a book titled British Battlefields, in a charity shop in Reigate a couple of days ago.   The book summaries battles from the Dark Ages until Culloden, it has diagrams showing deployment of forces and photos of re-enactors portraying the battle.  For someone who knows very little about battles fought in the UK, it is a great resource.  The biggest disappointment is that no battlefields from the Roman invasions have been identified.  Anyway, looks like I will be going to Sutton Hoo on Friday and Maldon next week.  Also heading to Bodium Castle tomorrow, which is a good example of a 14th Century castle.

http://www.castlexplorer.co.uk/england/bodiam/bodiam.php

The Battlefield Trust also have a great website with plenty of maps and details of battlefields and I recommend it.

http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/

One sort of knows, in the background, that it goes on, but one is rather tired from striving to pay Gordon Brown and all that stuff….and Yemen and Afghanistan are rather far-away countries right now, of which we know little…

…but I even wondered about this picture for a LA caption competition – just look at the poor LITTLE girl’s face: this is her wedding photo, the poor mite – he’s “about 40″, and she’s eleven:-

David Davis

...you mean, I have to shag THAT?...

In my mind, there is no problem for a woman to marry an older man, in principle. I am 16 years older than my wife, and even the Director, Sean Gabb, married his dear and nice wife whom we know and love, when she was at the time about 12 or 13 years younger than he was. They have now caught up in age together, as you do, and as we have done. My wife is still 16 years younger than I am, but we are both now old warring scrag-bags together.

But I think for the wife to be “eleven”, as in the above picture, so it is said, is pushing at the boundaries of the envelope” a little bit, or even a lot. If this is what is going on, then I as a Libertarian who believes that individual humans have Natural Rights, believe this sort of process to be disgusting. If we believe that children are children up to a “certain age” (about which there can be some argument but broadly we all agree it is “about” 16 (or so) and therefore cannot consent legally to serious interpersonal arrangements or other sorts of contracts under that age, then that must be the case for all humans. It cannot be that our children here can’t do it, but Yemeni (or other) children can, for some spurious and quasi-religious or other pre-Renaissance pre-capitalist reason.

Ragged pre-capitalist, pre-classical-liberal, and barbarian-warlord-survival-guides, cleverly promoted and peddled as “religions”, and dealing with the disposal of debts, animals, defeated tribes, the enemy’s widows-of-beheaded-warriors, and his relict children, his men’s and boy’s severed heads, and his slaves and concubines, are no help to these poor children in the photo. Not at all.

Libertarians, when they will have regained The West (a long job, Boyo!) will have their foreign-policy-work cut out for some time. But perhaps not as long as against Lithuanian EU Commissioners who hate light bulbs.

This is the real, primary sort of Enemy-Class enemy that we ought to be “servicing”. We can then, having secured our civilisation, “service” people like that “Taliban” bloke who seems to be able to get lots of interesting and exciting weapons to attack our boys with. I can’t find a correct wikiref to “service”, which in the Cold War, meant “kill on the battlefield”. Sorry.

Sixty five years ago men of the Airborne Army were pre-paring for the largest airborne operation of the Second World War which would later always be defined by one place, Arnhem. Operation Market Garden saw both American and British airborne troops drop along a narrow corridor with the aim of capturing bridge after bridge until Arnhem was secure – and a foothold for the entry into Germany would be gained. Supported by ground troops advancing up the same narrow corridor, the operation nearly succeeded. But of the 10,000 men of 1st Airborne Division who dropped into the area around Arnhem itself, only 2,000 got back. The rest were killed or taken prisoner. War Correspondent Alan Wood later remarked, “‘If in the years to come, you meet a man who says, “I was at Arnhem”, raise your hat and buy him a drink” and certainly there is something about those who fought in what the Germans called The Cauldron.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting another of these fine men, Reg Curtis. Reg served with the Grenadier Guards, joining in 1937 and serving at Dunkirk in 1940. He volunteered for the Parachute Regiment on its formation and served with 1st Battalion in North Africa, Sicily and at Arnhem, where he was badly wounded and lost a leg. He spent most of the battle in the Tafelberg, a hotel then used as a hospital, before being taken prisoner. Reg had published two books on his war experiences, the most recent of which is one entitled Tafelberg about his time and Arnhem and full of interesting stories, and rarely seen illustrations. Details can be found on his website: Talfelberg by Reg Curtis.

Every September my mind wanders to Arnhem, even if my body doesn’t. What happened there has fascinated me ever since I saw A Bridge Too Far in the 1970s. I must have read almost every book on the battle, and visited the ground countless times. Holland in the early autumn often has golden sunshine that casts long shadows among the trees and leafy glades of Oosterbeek. The sun sets across the Lower Rhine, but the sun must never set on the story of men like Reg. We owe them debt we can probably never repay, except to remember those who stayed behind, and whose souls cast their own shadows at The White House, The Bakery, or among their gardens and fields that once they mastered.

New Market Battlefield

The Battle of New Market occurred in May during the Valley Campaigns of 1864. MG John Breckinridge’s Confederate troops, including the Virginia Military Institute’s (VMI) Corps of Cadets, attacked Union MG Franz Sigel’s army outside of the small town. The cadets were intended to remain in reserve, however ordered to the front to reinforce the weakened Confederate center.

Hall of Valor

New Market Cadet gravestones & VMI Hall of Valor Museum

A semi-circle of six gravestones sits outside of the battlefield’s visitor center/museum. The stones are for six of the ten cadets lost in the battle, including five killed in action and one who died within days. The missing four died of complications due to their wounds over a course of months. The memorials were originally placed on VMI’s campus, but were later replaced by new memorial stones, with the additional four, and moved to the battlefield.

The museum is dedicated to the battle, particularly the cadets involved, and the war in general. The exhibits were nice. They were very eye-catching and concise. The upper level of “The Virginia Room” is lined with sections summarizing each year of the Civil War, with the lower level displaying battle and war artifacts.

Field of Honor

19th Century Bushlong Farm

Field of Lost Shoes

von Kleiser’s Union battery position

The Bushlong family’s, who waited out the fighting in the basement, farm was smack in the center of the battle line and the house was used as a Confederate field hospital. The manor is current set up to display the lifestyle of the time.

The wheat field north of the Bushlong’s orchard, which came to be known as the Field of Lost Shoes, was the main Confederate attack field. The Corps of Cadets, holding the Confederate center, charged out of the orchard across this fence.

The Union artillery, sitting across the field from the Confederate position, was abandoned after its infantry support retreated and captured by the Rebel forces. The entire Yankee line in this area was assaulted and driven from the field.

Misc

Shenandoah Valley scenic overlook

This morning’s Flickr set: New Market pics

Cedar Creek Battlefield

The Battle of Cedar Creek, the final of the Valley Campaigns of 1864, took place in mid-October. In the morning, Confederate MG Jubal Early’s Third Corps surprised MG Philip Sheridan’s Union Army of the Shenandoah, catching the Yankees off guard and pushing two Corps back. Eventually, the Union VIII Corps was able to organize an adequate defense, draining the Rebels of their momentum. After a brief cease-fire, the Union army counter-attacked and crushed their Confederate opponents.

The battlefield is a mixture of National Park, foundation-owned and privately-owned property. Apparently, most of it belongs to the Cedar Creek Battlefield and Belle Grove Plantation Foundations, key preservation foundations working to accumulate the remainder of the land. Very little of the battlefield is currently maintained by the National Park Service.

Anyway, because of this, there isn’t an official tour route for the park. At the battlefield visitor center this book was recommended to me as a guide for an adequate, organized tour. It’s much more than I had expected, so I didn’t even attempt to start the suggested trail. I’m going to read through the book, then go back. However, since I was there, I stopped at two main pieces of the battlefield for a preview.

Belle Grove Plantation

Belle Grove Manor

Plantation fields & Cedar Creek Battlefield

The estate was home to Maj. Isaac Hite and his wife Nelly Conway Madison, James Madison’s sister. During the battle, the property was front and center for much of the fighting. The mansion itself was used as Sheridan’s headquarters.

Currently, the house is open for tours, although, I chose to skip it. The grounds include several outbuildings, a barn, small garden and slave cemetery. The land is gorgeous.

Union Trench line

Union XIX Corps trench section

A half-mile trail follows a section of MG William Emory’s Eleventh Corps trench line. The trail begins a ways down a gravel road off of Route 11, but once you reach it, it’s well marked as it cuts through the thick woods. The trenches are relatively well preserved.

I’ve been to several battlefields with earthworks remaining, but have yet to find a way to effectively photograph them. Because the images are flat, it’s often hard to see the faint overgrown trenches. Oh well, I know what I’m looking at and maybe one day I’ll figure something better out.

This afternoon’s Flickr set: Cedar Creek pics

Just returned from filming in Dunkirk with a group of local amateur archaeologists who have been digging up the beaches there for more than 20 years. During the period we were working with them, they found some amazing material, just in a morning, including a gas mask (above) in incredible condition. This will feature in a series for BBC1 entitled Dig1940, and presented by Jules Hudson. Current broadcast date is sometime around June 2010.