Looking Ahead to Sesquicentennial of 2012

Sesquicentennial Posting Number 1

Without doubt, 2012 is a significant year for Civil War enthusiasts as we commemorate the 150^th anniversary of so many significant events.

Something I want to do from this point forward is comment in a series of blog postings on the 150^th anniversary date of major events in the War – of course particularly highlighting those pertaining to Antietam and the Maryland Campaign of 1862.

I wish I would have had this blog up and running for the past 18 months or so, because, if I did, I could have commented on the 150^th date of these primary events:

10/16/09 – The John Brown raid upon Harpers Ferry – (I was with a tour group at Antietam on that date, and we made note of the event.)

11/6/10 – Abraham Lincoln is elected as the 16^th President

12/20/10 – South Carolina secedes from the Union

12/26/10 – Robert Anderson moves his command from Fort Moultrie in Charleston, SC out to Fort Sumter – (I may yet write about this, since it is a part of the Abner Doubleday story.)

2/18/11 – Jefferson Davis is elected as Provisional President of the Confederacy

3/4/11 – Abraham Lincoln Becomes President

4/12/11 – Fort Sumter is attacked – (again, I’m likely to write a good deal about this at some point, since Abner Doubleday sighted the first shot in response on this recognized day as the opening of the Civil War)

6/2011 – There were many events in our area as troops under General Banks moved through the Tri-State region, skirmished at Williamsport / Falling Waters, etc.

7/21/11 – First Battle of Bull Run / Manassas

8/10/11 – Battle of Wilson’s Creek (the Bull Run of the West)

10/21/11 – Battle of Ball’s Bluff (Winchester, VA)

11/1/11 – McClellan replaces Winfield Scott as General-in-Chief of the US Army

11/9/11 – Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War established by the U.S. Senate – (This was begun after the disaster of the Union loss at Ball’s Bluff near Leesburg, Virginia, when corpses of Union soldiers floated down the Potomac River to be found by Washington, D.C. residents.

Senator Wade (not Conan O'Brien!)

Also killed in battle was a U.S. Senator – Edward Baker – a friend close enough to Lincoln that the President had named a son after him. The Committee was chaired throughout the War by Ohio Senator Benjamin Wade – one of the Radical Republicans who, as a group, were very critical of the war effort not being executed aggressively enough.)

So anyhow, it is a small disaster that I didn’t have this blog started until now. Why? Well, that should likely be investigated! I should call together a joint committee of my multiple personalities and too many varied interests to examine it!  Because now, to quote a fellow many folks would regard as a modern Radical Republican, “I’m having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have!”