I would like to thank fellow historian and blogger Jim Schmidt for writing a very nice review on my book about the historic churches of Fredericksburg in the May issue of Civil War News. I loved his recent book Lincoln’s Labels and to have him praise my own work is a blessing indeed. Here is a reprint of the review which Jim posted over on his own blog. Thank you Sir.

"To be sure, the book is not all about battles, bombardments, and amputations. In describing the origins of each church, Michael describes interesting theological differences that led to splits among the denominations before the war. His discussion of the treatment of the city’s population of enslaved African-Americans and how they worshiped is very enlightening." - Jim Schmidt (Civil War News, May 2009)