Antietam- Crisis in Command

During the battle of Antietam… George McClellan was concerned with prudence.  He was managing his resources carefully that day, he would not allow his army to fail.  His insistence on preventing the Army of the Potomac from being defeated cost it the chance at decisive victory.   McClellan claimed in his report of the battle that

Andrew Jackson Higgins – A Legacy

Originally posted on Pacific Paratrooper:
Andrew Jackson Higgins Andrew Jackson Higgins, the man Dwight D. Eisenhower once credited with winning World War II, was a wild and wily genius. At the New Orleans plant where his company built the boats that brought troops ashore at Normandy on June 6, 1944, Higgins hung a sign that said,…

Weekly History News Roundup

Hurricane Dorian unearths Civil War ordinance in South Carolina   Government Officials recall the perils of Flight 93 on 9/11   Newly discovered Indian artifacts alter record of tribes in California   Judge rules Confederate statues in Charlottesville cannot be removed   Private donations sought to purchase land on Stones River battlefield    

Douglass Out of Context

Armchair historians like Colin Kaepernick often quote Frederick Douglass when making disingenuous points about civil rights history. Douglass is too often misquoted or valuable context is ignored, most persistently in regards to Abraham Lincoln and emancipation. In history, context does matter.   Frederick Douglass is often cited as proof that slaves never cared for Lincoln

Bush on 9/11

Trying to make sense of it all… Good evening. Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes or in their offices: secretaries, business men and women, military and federal workers, moms and dads, friends and

Reflections on an Empty Sky: Liberty State Park

National Parks With T Welcome back to National Parks & other public lands with T! This is a special post in remembrance of the victims of the 9-11 terror attacks. Empty Sky is New Jersey’s State Memorial to its victims of the September 11th attacks. It is in Liberty State Park on the waterfront, directly across

Current News – USS ARIZONA MEMORIAL is OPEN

Originally posted on Pacific Paratrooper:
USS Arizona Memorial, Pear Harbor, Hawaii HONOLULU (Tribune News Service) — With the American flag billowing in the wind and “The Star-Spangled Banner” playing on the loudspeakers from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, the first boatload of tourists and residents in nearly 16 months stepped onto the USS Arizona Memorial on…

The Washington Monument and The Pope’s Stone

Originally posted on Presidential History Blog:
Our iconic Washington Monument The Washington Monument took more than 40 years to build. Planning the Monument As one might expect, circa 1832 Congress planned to commemorate the man whose name became the nation’s capital. Dozens of ideas were proposed and debated. The arguments went on for weeks. What…

The Unfortunate Allure of Howard Zinn

A People’s History of The United States  fails as a serious work of history because it lacks the basics of the scholarly discipline. It is often presented at a “textbook” by those enthralled with Zinn’s provocations. It also fails miserably as a text, for it lacks even the slightest pretense of objectivity. Social media academics(Twitterstorians…seriously?) 

Impeachment as Remedy

Has our country really recovered from the 1999… impeachment of President Bill Clinton?  The stifling partisanship tearing apart our republic can largely be traced to this event.  Would our political process be in better shape today had Clinton resigned rather than drag the process to a Senate trial?  Examples in our history have been ignored,