Two weeks later I was on my way to Nashville with another gang of government workmen. I felt much better than I looked, due to the ravages of the Pox. At Edgefield Junction, Mike Costalo came through the train, apparently looking for some one. When he got near me, I spoke to him. He said: […]

(The fabulous Gayoso Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. The was built overlooking the Mississippi River in 1842 and became a Memphis landmark until it burned in 1899. The original Gayoso House was a first class hotel, designed by James H. Dakin, was appointed with the latest conveniences, including indoor plumbing with marble tubs, silver faucets and […]

After the funeral was done, they put me into a room with two other officers who were prisoners, one of whom was Capt Broughton, of Dallas, Texas. This room was about 12×14 feet square, and was quite bare as to furnishings. We had to sleep on our blankets and use our canteens for pillows. Just […]

(“Battle of Raymond” by Theodore Davis – Harper’s Weekly, June 13th, 1863, from a sketch by Theodore Davis. Image courtesy Wikipedia). These have been the words of Patrick Griffin, taken from an address he gave in 1905, some forty-two years after the events he describes. His unit- the Bloody Tinth- had been ordered from Port […]

Gentle readers, the following paper was read by Patrick Griffin at a meeting of Frank Cheatham Camp, Confederate Veterans of America, at Nashville, Tennessee in the year 1905. The Wright Brothers had just flow the first successful airplane two years before. It is the overlap of generations that is striking here- Patrick had been brought […]

(The Village of Clifden, in County Galway, where Honora Griffin’s odyssey began. The blue eyes in the family came from the Viking raider’s who harassed the coast of Ireland in olden days.) I had the most extraordinary dream last night, vivid beyond belief. There was a fair amount of stuff going on in it that […]

Patrick Griffin: The Adventure of a Lifetime By Rebecca Blackwell Drake (Author Becky Drake, speaking to a gathering of Civil War enthusiasts on the Hill of Death at Champion Hill. That struggle was part of the Union campaign that built the reputation of U. S, Grant, and was part of the strategic effort to secure […]

(Screen shot of the cover of Newsweek with a useful article by Fareed Zakaria on how to live with Radical Islam. Image Newsweek). I just got back from a haircut administered by my Tunisian barber Ben up at the corner. I never go to anyone else, because I can trust Ben implicitly, even when he […]

It is snowing again. I need to get out of here. There was a time when the prospect of the white stuff got my blood going, a sort of winter ‘Surfs up!’ to break out the Rossignols and do some serious schussing. But not so much these days, now that the legs creak and sway, […]

It was an exciting drive up from the Farm in the icy rain. One moment you are hurtling down a wet stretch of asphalt and the next the onboard computer is struggling to keep all four wheels connected to anything at all. It is an automotive equivalent to the arc of history we all shared […]