Dead Confederates, A Civil War Era Blog

Small stories that don’t warrant full posts:

• CW buffs who use Google Earth may have noticed that Richmond was recently upgraded with LIDAR data (above), that includes individually-textured buildings, trees and even some road vehicles.
• The USS Monitor Center’s wet lab reopened in May, based on a verbal agreement by all parties. The contracts still need to be sorted out.
• As part of the previously-announced plan for establishment of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond, the Museum of the Confederacy will begin transferring stewardship (but not ownership) of its archival materials to the Virginia Historical Society, where they will be scanned, indexed and made available to the public digitally.
• Saturday was the 213th birthday of David Glasgow Farragut.
• Robert M. Browning’s long-awaited volume on the Union blockade in the Gulf of Mexico, Lincoln’s Trident, will be released on January 15. It ain’t cheap, so start looking for loose change in the couch cushions now.
• The History Detectives had a show on the other day about the Sultana Disaster. Kinda interesting, but it’s almost all ground covered by Jerry Potter years ago.
• A tip for summer — after a long day at the beach, be sure to empty the hot coals out of your barbecue grill before loading it in the pickup for the drive home.
• Keith Harris has some observations about Shelby Foote as a storyteller, and as an historian. Hint: they’re not the same thing.
• And last, congratulations to my former Denbigh Project colleague Eric VanVelzen, who was recently promoted to Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Coast Guard. Van is a former Marine and a Desert Storm veteran.

Got anything else? Put it in the comments below.

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