Me on the Radio

Don't worry, I'm not singing. That 'treat' is reserved for those unfortunate souls who sit near me in church. This afternoon I accepted a gracious invitation to appear as a guest on noted Sports Psychology coach, trainer, speaker & author Jim Meier’s Internet Radio Show “Championship Thinking.” It is quite an honor too, as Jim’s past guests include coaches, players, and Hall of Famers.

Believe it or not, this radio appearance has absolutely nothing to do with my current Civil War work. I'm actually going to be discussing the psychological similarities between chess and baseball and how one mindset improves the other. I have already compiled a plethora of sources on the subject, and I have some wonderful reference material to quote too. 

'You're a chessmaster?" you ask. Let's just say that I like to refer to myself as a “masterfully mediocre chess player who has chosen ‘The game of kings’ as his preferred form of recreational torture - over the game of golf.”

Jim 'found' me from my Pinstripe Press article on Baseball-Almanac titled "Check'mates'" which dealt with the similarities between the two games and their like-origins. His program highlights a myriad of subjects in relation to baseball, sportsmanship, and player development. Chess is an excellent example of cross-over thinking in sports. 

Our talk is tentatively titled "Chess as a Tool for Developing Baseball Intelligence." As one who has studied both chess and baseball, I believe that the benefits (of both) go way beyond mere strategy. Other skill sets such as patience, observation, anticipation of your opponent’s next move, and trend analysis (in regards to pitchers and hitting styles) come from a chess/baseball crossover. Players will ultimately look at a line-up like a move card, or the infield like a chessboard. Not literally of course, but with the same ‘thought process’ of anticipate – react – adjust. Just like chess, it becomes a way of ‘seeing’ things that have yet to happen on the diamond.

Jim Meier has consulted with, coached and trained individuals in their professional, personal and athletic development since 1976. In 1991 he founded The Training and Consulting Connection. Jim’s background and skills include higher education, knowledge and roll-up-your-sleeves experience. He thrives on blending and translating leading research and studies from these key disciplines-sports psychology, philosophy, social learning theory, leadership, change and innovation, free will and accountability. As a sports psychology coach Jim works one-on-one with professionals and amateurs and frequently speaks to groups nationally and internationally in a wide variety of settings such as professional associations, clinics, conferences, conventions, business meetings, on cruise ships and sporting events. For more on Jim, visit his website.

‘Championship Thinking’ is broadcast live every Tuesday from 6:00 to 7:00 PM CST. I’ll announce the actual date once its firmed-up. It will be in October. Stay tuned for details.

Gone to church, again, and again, and again...

Most people only go to church once a week; some go twice (I'm a 1-timer myself, 2- if I’m leading an evening men’s Bible study.) As I am currently running the research marathon, I've been to church almost every other day it seems for the last few weeks. Last week I was at Fredericksburg United Methodist, Shiloh Baptist (Old Site), and Fredericksburg Baptist. Yesterday I was at Salem Baptist, Friday I’ll be at St. George's Episcopal, Saturday morning I’m off to Massaponax Baptist, then my church, Spotsylvania Presbyterian on Sunday, then hopefully I'll get to visit a couple historical Spotsy churches next week.

 

Plus I have been dealing with the phone calls, and emails, and voice mail messages galore. I need to hire an assistant, or at least buy a hybrid-car to get around. I will say this; the ‘Acknowledgements’ page in this book is going to be filled, as there are so many wonderful people from the National Park Service and the congregations helping me in the pursuit of primary-sources. Out of 14 churches, I am down to just a few.

 

If you need me, I'll be at church. I'm just not sure which one.

Hello Boston. This is Joba Chamberlain?

He is 21 years old. He is from Nebraska and is one of a few Native American baseball players currently in organized baseball. He has one of the most promising young arms to come out of college ball in years. He has already begun his major league career while making appearances with the Yankees bullpen. He throws 99 mph and has already tallied 10 shutout innings, while striking out 17 veteran batters. As of this posting, he is 7-1 with an ERA of POINT-ZERO-ZERO (.00).

You may have the division this year Red Sox Nation (barring a catastrophic breakdown), but you don’t have any farm prospects like this. Get to know Joba.

The Yankees plan to use Chamberlain as a bridge from their starting pitching to their closer, Mariano Rivera (NY broadcasters have compared Joba’s role to Rivera's in 1996, when the latter served as primary setup man to John Wetteland). In the long run, Chamberlain is expected to break into the starting rotation. Manager Joe Torre and the Yankee organization has come up with a set of guidelines which Yankee's broadcaster Michael Kay refers to as "Joba Rules." They state Chamberlain will only come into a game to start an inning, and that he must get a day of rest for each inning pitched, both prior to and following the game in which he pitches. This is used to protect his arm, because he has never relieved before in his career.

Oh yes, protect that arm.

Militia vs. Volunteers?

Ever since the September issue of Civil War Historian magazine was released, my email inbox has been flooded with some wonderful sentiments from fellow Civil War, Baseball, and Military Historians. It seems that I ‘can’ write mainstream-secular history, and still have it be readable. People have been very generous in their compliments and I hope to write more magazine articles in the future.

 

One email in particular came from Gustav Person, who is the noted historian at the U.S. Army’s Fort Belvoir installation. I’ve read some of Gustav’s work (which is EXCELLENT) such as his “Union Blue and Militia Gray: The Role of the New York State Militia in the Civil War.” He is currently completing an article on the New York State Militia in 1861 for CWH, an expanded chapter from his Master's thesis, and I am very much looking forward to it.

 

In his email he stated: “On page 14, you made reference to a baseball game between the Washington Nationals and the 71st New York Regiment. I assumed that you were referring to the 71st Regiment, New York State Militia, not the 71st New York Volunteers, since you referred to some casualties suffered by the unit at Bull Run. Is this correct? Most people do not know the difference between militia and volunteer units, and it is often confusing and distracting.”

 

First, he is correct in his assumption and I promised to send him some of my source material on that subject once things settle down with my church book project. Second, he brings up an excellent point, and perhaps I should have made that regimental distinction clearer. Even though I was accurate in referencing the 71st NY, it is easy to confuse Militia and Volunteer units – as they are similar, but different.

 

That is what makes a REAL historian of Gustav Person’s caliber and why we are lucky to have him working for the United States Armed Forces. Guys like Gustav notice the little things in regards to historical analysis and interpretation. I didn’t even think about the difference between the two.

 

Thanks Gustav. BOTH for your compliments and the lesson in professionalism. I'll be more descriptive of unit designations in the future.

Virginia Heritage Tours

This week I had the honor of designing a logo for our friend Richard Williams, who has just debuted his new tour business in Lexington, which focuses on the religious heritage of this beautiful, historic Shenandoah Valley village.

According to his webpage announcement at: Lexington Virginia Attractions: VA HERITAGE TOURS: Historic tours of Lexington guided by award-winning historian and Civil War author Richard G. Williams, Jr. Our tours focus on the religious heritage of Lexington with special emphasis on the Christian faith of Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and General Robert E. Lee. Sites on the walking tour include Lee Chapel on the campus of Washington & Lee University, Virginia Military Institute, Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery, Lexington Presbyterian Church, & R E Lee Memorial Episcopal Church. Considerable time is also spent visiting sites related to Jackson’s now famous Sunday school for slaves & free blacks. This is an inspiring and unique tour unlike any other you will experience. Tours may be customized and generally last approximately 2 hours.

I certainly know where I'll be touring next year. Richard, book me and my dad for sometime next summer.

He?s still watching over them...

Last week my daughter and I stopped down at the Fredericksburg Confederate Cemetery on our way home from a day at Chatham Manor. This followed a weekend of heavy thunderstorms, and there was some apparent weather damage in the downtown area. In the center of the cemetery, just a few feet from the Confederate Sentry monument, laid a very large tree branch, which had come crashing down in the storm. It was so heavy that it was literally imbedded into the ground.

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Here is the part of the story that prompted these two extraordinary photographs… not a single headstone or row underneath the carnage was touched. Amazing Grace? Absolutely!

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Share and share alike
One week of searching through the National Park archives and I already have this nice stack of primary sources, and a couple old books with secondary data. Every day, I get more and more emails and leads from local historians. I’m also receiving a lot of rare, unpublished material from the church records themselves. What’s going to be a really nice benefit from this project is the ‘cross-pollination’ of information that I’ll be doing upon its completion. Everything that I get from the NPS will be copied and given to the churches. And everything that I get from the churches will be copied and handed over to the NPS. This is going to be a blessing for churches that have ‘cross-over’ history like Fredericksburg Baptist Church (a primarily white congregation) and Shiloh Baptist: Old Site, (a primarily black congregation). Many of them are missing vital pieces of their past, and I hope to help them fill a few of them. Who knows? That may be the entire ‘purpose’ behind this book. The Lord does work in mysterious ways, and everything that I have ever published has been totally gifted and guided by a higher power.

SPC Men's Ministry Talk

I finally took a break from researching historic churches to write my presentation for the Spotsylvania Presbyterian Church Men’s Ministry Breakfast. I’m the guest speaker for the September fellowship, and I am very much looking forward to the opportunity to speak to my fellow SPC members.

Although I have a couple existing presentations in my pocket dealing with religious subjects in the Civil War, I wanted to create something brand-new and customized to fit the ‘discipleship’ theme that we will be doing in our fall church programs. I decided to take six subjects that fit the concept of ‘discipleship’ in one way or another, and use that as the basis for the program. I titled this one “FAITH UNDER FIRE: Discipleship during the War Between the States.”

Starting with the definition taken from Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary which states: “A disciple of Christ is one who: (1) believes His doctrine (2) rests on His sacrifice (3) imbibes [receives] His spirit (4) imitates His example,” I then present stories of varying degrees of discipleship that I think we can all learn from. I also tried to do a balance of North vs. South in order to appeal to everyone. Our church has a lot of transplanted northerners, myself included. Most of us however, are long-standing Virginia converts.

* First up is Reverend Father William Corby (Irish Brigade Chaplain), a shepherd for Christ who showed courage through his faith - a courage that spread throughout the ranks of his flock.

* Next is Confederate President Jefferson Davis who set a precedent for religious tolerance when he assembled the first administration in American history that included Protestants, Catholics and Jews.

* Third is Nathan Bedford Forrest who went from an 'unsaved' slave-trader to a born-again Christian. If he can do it, certainly we can change our own ways, whatever they may be. (Critics will be pleased to know that I make a point of doing the Dr.Jekyl vs. Mr.Hyde aspect of ‘the Wizard.’ That’s the entire point of his inclusion here.)

* ‘NBF’ is followed by his polar opposite, ‘The Christian General’ Oliver Howard, a man of God who ultimately became a man of the people - all people - regardless of the color of their skin.

* I then move onto religious revivals and renewals during the conflict. (The one ‘positive’ thing about war – it can make people religious rather quickly whether they realize it or not. I am sure that there have been plenty of agnostics and atheists who have prayed to God from a foxhole.)

* As we live and worship in ‘The Crossroads of the Civil War’ I have to include some local lore. I chose the obvious story of Sgt. Richard Rowland Kirkland who is also known as the ‘Angel of Marye’s Heights.’

* Finally, I close with a wonderful and thought provoking prayer that was believed to have been found on the body of a dead Confederate soldier.

I created an 18-slide Power Point show to compliment the piece with a photo of each individual and a page with associated verses of Scripture. I call them the "Building Blocks For The Prayer Warrior." (I hate bullet-point slides and refuse to use them.) I’ll take some pics at the event and be sure to share them with you here. I’ll also be getting a transcript to post over on my website along with the PPT slides. Stay tuned.

On a side note, I took ‘the Boy’ out to practice driving around Spotsylvania Battlefield and Courthouse area today. (He’s getting quite good.) We also made a brief stop on the way home at the Confederate Cemetery. Stretching our legs, we discovered three ‘combined’ graves that I had never noticed before. All three were Yankee graves for the Lufkins (Samuel, Loren, Otis) who fought and died with Maine. I’m not exactly sure who these guys were, and I am a little confused by their inclusion together in the cemetery.

The Lufkins served in the 5th and 16th Infantry, and the 1st Cavalry. They have 1 standing stone (rounded on top) with 2 flat stone markers in front of the plot. All of the markers look polished and newer than other stones around them, so I assume that they have a local relative or caretaker maintaining the site. I’ll let you know what I can find on this as I’m sure it is a fascinating story.

September?s Civil War Historian

I just wanted to post a reminder that I have an 8-page feature in the upcoming issue of Civil War Historian magazine titled “Battlefield Baseball: Birth of a National Pastime.” This in-depth study presents the myths of Doubleday, the truth of Spaulding, and noteworthy games that occurred during the conflict. I also included several photos and a chart. I’ve had other articles on Civil War era-baseball published before, but this is by far the most detailed and up-to date. I'm hoping to post a secure PDF of the piece after the next issue is made available. 

Other great articles in Volume 3; Number 5, September/October 2007 include: ‘The 4th North Carolina Infantry at the Battle of Seven Pines,’ ‘How to build a split-rail fence,’ and ‘Fort Monroe.’ Grab one of your local newsstand or visit CWH’s website to order your copy today. Order online here.

Civil War Historian magazine was founded to promote knowledge of Civil War-era life in America. Civil War Historian accomplishes its goal by producing a high-quality publication that supports those who reenact the lives of Americans who lived in this era. The nature of the publication is both informative and entertaining. Civil War Historian contains after-action reports of reenactments, reprints of period publications, and historical research articles, all of which are supported by exceptional color images and artistic page design. Civil War Historian’s guiding principle and belief are the need to protect, preserve, and share accurate information about this momentous period in our history.

Special thanks to Managing Editor Benjamin Smith for his nice write-up on me that is posted on the CWH website. His validation is very much appreciated. This is a first opportunity for me to 'break into' the magazine-scene, and I am very grateful for his interest in my work.

Gone fishing... for primary sources

I’m off bouncing between the National Park Service archives and Old Town Fredericksburg churches all week.

 

So far I’ve gone through 44 bound volumes at the NPS resulting in at least 50 items of interest and I have received mounds of rare and unpublished materials for 8 of the 12 churches. (That’s me going a pile of vols. at the NPS while pretending that it is work and not play. You can't see that I'm in 'heaven on earth' and smiling ear to ear.) I now have books, brochures, and file - after file - after file of letters, memoirs, official records, and newspaper accounts. Special thanks to Chief Historian John Hennessy and his staff for an outstanding day of study, and to my wonderful daughter Madison who kept the Xerox machine humming. I also took a dozen or so photos of Chatham’s magnificent grounds on our lunch break. I'll be adding a fav to my photo album next week.

 

This afternoon, I met with Mark Olson who is from the Archives Committee at Shiloh Baptist (Old Site). Mark generously provided me with some stunning material. I bet you didn’t know that prior to the war years the original Fredericksburg Baptist Church was completely integrated, and that the white citizens only dismissed the African-American members of their congregation after the start of the war. I now have copies of the official rolls and transcripts on the white-black split that resulted in Shiloh. There's much more to this story and material like this is going to make my book stand out. I'll be meeting with a rep from Fredericksburg Baptist on Thursday to get 'the other side' of this story. Tomorrow I’ll also be stopping at Salem Church in the afternoon, and we may pop into Fredericksburg's Confederate Cemetery to track down some graves.

I am learning so much already, and to ‘spend a day at the office’ at a magnificent place like Chatham Manor is almost too much for me to handle. I’ll be back there tomorrow going through ‘loose’ files (courtesy of Eric Mink) that are not part of the NPS's bound collection. I can’t wait to see what revelations are revealed. Now that I’m nearing the mid-way point in the research cycle, I’m realizing that the biggest challenge will be in deciding what to use and what not to use. The History Press has a pre-determined word-count in my contract as there is also a large quantity of photos. That means that I have to use the best stuff to make this book worthwhile for the reader. I have plenty to choose from – maybe too much.

Please excuse my absence and feel free to enjoy last week's posts again. I won’t be available until this weekend at the earliest. I’ll try and keep you in the loop. It doesn’t get any better than this boys and girls.