Holiday Greetings To All
As I imagine it is with most people, I have a very full-plate this week and over the next few days I will be busy finalizing my preparations for the upcoming holiday weekend. Between work, church, and family activities, I will not have much time for blogging, so I wanted to make sure that I posted my own personal wishes for you and yours to have a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. I do have a couple articles coming out, and I?ll try to post the links here if time permits. If not, I will certainly make sure to do so after the New Year. Regardless, I wanted to make sure that I posted this today:

Each Christmas, I put together a CW-themed ?eCard? to email out to all of my associates in cyber-land. This year, I have decided to share it here instead, as I appreciate all of your wonderful support and interest in my work. The bloggers, historians, authors, publishers, agents, editors, re-enactors, and readers that I have been privileged enough to work with this year have blessed me in a way that I could not express in mere words, and I look forward to continuing our work together in 2007. For my 2006 card, I have selected one of my all-time favorite paintings, "Divine Guidance" by Mort Kunstler:



This touching portrait is one of the reasons that I have dedicated so much of my energy to the praise and recognition of General Thomas ?Stonewall? Jackson. The story behind this piece is that of ?Old Jack and Little Janie? and it is a testament to the belief that all things happen according to God?s will. This doctrine was a major brick in Jackson?s ?stonewall? so to speak, and enabled him to find comfort during the most desperate of times. This specific event (at least to me) says more about the heart, faith, and conviction of the man than any other aspect of his life. It is a remarkable tale that was dramatized in the movie Gods and Generals, and has been captured on canvas in several of Mr. Kunstler's paintings. It takes up an entire chapter in my Christian-biography on the general entitled ?Onward Christian Soldier: The Spiritual Journey of Stonewall.? As the CD version of this book has just been completed, I have decided to post the audio version of this story here, and you can listen to an unedited MP3 of the chapter (2 Parts), as read by me:

LISTEN Chapter 8, Part 1 (MP3. 1.8 Meg)
LISTEN Chapter 8, Part 2 (MP3. 2.7 Meg)

For those not able to listen to MP3?s, here is an excerpt from the description behind the painting from Mort Kunstler?s Online Gallery: ?While spending the winter of 1863 in quarters at Moss Neck Plantation General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson forged a close relationship with his host's five year-old daughter Jane Wellford Corbin. Unfortunately, on the very day of his departure, "Little Janie" contracted scarlet fever. Reports from the Corbin home seemed hopeful, and the general expressed his wishes for a speedy recovery. A day after establishing his new headquarters, however, Jackson received the awful news: his little friend Janie had suddenly died. Jackson - the great and mighty warrior whose hammer-like blows had driven the enemy from so many fields of fire - wept aloud. Then he unashamedly knelt and took his burdens to the Lord in prayer.?