Thanksgiving Season Miscellany

Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation

We are yet a year away from the 150 years since Lincoln called for a national day of thanksgiving. The proclamation itself was on the date of 10/3/1863 – calling for the final Thursday of November for the commemoration itself. I’ll be sure to write more about it next year (so y’all plan to come back then!).  But without going too political on you, and in accord with my sad evaluation of the condition of our country in these troublesome times, Lincoln’s words toward the end of God’s providential hand of blessing seem appropriately applied even to our time, as we too might “fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.”  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Thankful for a year of blogging about Antietam and the Civil War

Well, almost a year … and this is post 149 … and it is great fun! I’ll simply interject here again a simple word about my purposes in doing this. It is primarily a blog of posts that I trust would be of interest to those with a general understanding the Civil War, as well as others with a more advanced knowledge. Though I write at times with a rather scholarly approach, and though my natural proclivities would be toward most enjoying that, my target audience is populist – targeted especially toward those who have been, or are considering being guests of the Antietam Battlefield Guides.

McClellan – the pitcher

Every so often my varied worlds of life and writing cross each other. I regularly feed 3-4 different blogs with words. One of them is a Baltimore Orioles baseball blog on a sports network (www.birdswatcher.com).  And in my reading disciplines for staying abreast of all news related to the Birds, I came across this headline today: “Orioles show no interest in McClellan.”

Kyle McClellan is a free agent pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, and is one in whom the Orioles had some interest in obtaining a year ago. But he has had some health issues over the past two seasons and is therefore deemed to be uncertain as to what quality of performance would be gotten from him in a deal. It would be a risk to give the ball to McClellan … hmm … the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Sesquicentennial Series

Those who read my blog in any regular fashion know that I particularly enjoy writing items on the exact 150^th date of the given topic. Right now, there is not much to write about. Most of the people whose journals and histories I read have little to say about this current time. The eastern theatre armies are on the move toward Fredericksburg and there is little to write about.

General Geary Letter

And speaking of McClellan, I’ll include one simple item – a letter from the political general John White Geary to his wife, dated 11/11/1862.  “These are times of changes. You see our commanders are changed almost with the breeze. For my own part I am quite quiescent and easy. I think Burnside a first rate man & I think there is no doubt he will be much more active than his predecessor. If so, it is a God-send to the country. ‘Nuff sed.’”   …. The more things change, the more they stay the same.