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Upcoming Presentations: November-December
November: 1st-2nd: Lee White, “The Battle of Chickamauga” and “The Battle of Stones River,” at 1863: The Decisive Year of the Civil War (Greencastle, PA): Day 1 and Day 2 3rd: Chris Kolakowski at Civil...
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Upcoming Presentations: December
December: 4th: Chris Mackowski, “Crossroads of Fire: The Battle of Chancellorsville,” at the White Plains Historical Society (White Plains, NY)—rescheduled 9th: Chris Mackowski, “Grant’s Last Battle:...
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June-August Presentations
June: 5th: Chris Kolakowski, “1864: The Last Stand of the Confederate Navy” Chicago Civil War Roundtable 7th: Chris Mackowski, “That Furious Struggle: Chancellorsville and the High Tide of the...
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Meeting Grant’s Great-Great-Grandson
Me and Grant’s descendant, John Griffiths Last month, while giving a talk for the Friends of Wilderness Battlefield on Grant’s Last Battle, I had the chance to meet one of Ulysses S. Grant’s...
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Catering to General Grant’s Last Days
Thomas Cable, “Gen. Grant’s Caterer” I’m heading up to Grant Cottage for an event this weekend, where I’m supposed to be talking about my latest book, Grant’s Last Battle, which focuses on the last few...
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Ulysses S. Grant and the Wilderness of Pennsylvania (part one)
The ruins of the Kinzua Viaduct part one in a three-part series Like the crozzled bones of giants, the steel girders of the Kinzua Viaduct lie along the valley floor and up the far hillside. Once, the...
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Ulysses S. Grant and the Wilderness of Pennsylvania (part two)
“Citizen” Grant part two of a three-part series Yesterday’s installment set up Ulysses S. Grant’s trip to see the Kinzua Viaduct in McKean County, Pennsylvania—”The Pennsylvania Wilds”—on November 16,...
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July 1, 1884: Grant’s “New Disaster of Shiloh”
Robert Underwood Johnson On July 1, 1884, editors of Century Magazine received a much-anticipated envelope from former president Ulysses S. Grant. Grant had agreed to write four articles for the...
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Time to Talk (Civil War) Books: A Conversation with Marc Ramsey—part four
Marc Ramsey (back right) with board members of the Richmond Battlefield Association Part four of five In yesterday’s segment of my interview with bookseller Marc Ramsey of Owens & Ramsey...
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Grant’s Last Battle Redux
I’m always excited to have a box of my books show up on my doorstep from the printer. This week, it was the newly printed second edition of Grant’s Last Battle. As a parent, you’re not supposed to have...
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Haunted by Typos
Like a lot of writers, I hate to look at my material once it’s gone into print. When I do, a typo inevitably jumps off the page and slaps me in the face. It’s not because my pieces are riddled with...
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The Train to Mt. McGregor
It was a sweltering day 134 years ago on June 16, 1885. The mercury teased the 100-degree mark, and for Ulysses S. Grant, the heat flowing back from the locomotive only made it worse. Add to that the...
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The Bust of Grant and the Indiscriminate Destruction of Monuments
Grant’s bust in San Francisco, toppled. The “Stop” in the street beneath Grant could not be a more appropriate message. (photo: Twitter/Joe Rivano Barros) For some people, Ulysses S. Grant’s monument...
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Henry Adams on Adam Badeau and Ulysses S. Grant
Adam Badeau On April 29, 1885, as Ulysses S. Grant was in the last stretch of writing his memoirs—and in the last stages of his terminal throat cancer—a story appeared in one of the New York newspapers...
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ECW on C-SPAN 3: Grant’s Last Battle
The spring ECW virtual symposium concludes on C-SPAN 3 tonight with a final program and then a full rebroadcast of the entire line-up. Check out Chris Mackowski’s talk, “Grant’s Last Battle,” one of...
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The “Emerging Civil War Series” Series: Grant’s Last Battle
It’s a pretty nerdy thing to admit, but I loved writing a book about a guy who was writing a book. That the guy was Ulysses S. Grant, and the book his personal memoirs, and that he was writing it as a...
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July 1, 1884: Grant’s “New Disaster of Shiloh”
Robert Underwood Johnson On July 1, 1884, editors of Century Magazine received a much-anticipated envelope from former president Ulysses S. Grant. Grant had agreed to write four articles for the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Time to Talk (Civil War) Books: A Conversation with Marc Ramsey—part four
Marc Ramsey (back right) with board members of the Richmond Battlefield Association Part four of five In yesterday’s segment of my interview with bookseller Marc Ramsey of Owens & Ramsey...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Grant’s Last Battle Redux
I’m always excited to have a box of my books show up on my doorstep from the printer. This week, it was the newly printed second edition of Grant’s Last Battle. As a parent, you’re not supposed to have...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Haunted by Typos
Like a lot of writers, I hate to look at my material once it’s gone into print. When I do, a typo inevitably jumps off the page and slaps me in the face. It’s not because my pieces are riddled with...
View Article