The sawdust was flyin’…

I’m generally a pretty organized guy.  Well, some would even call me a neat freak.  Okay, okay, let’s say my wife and daughter have called me that once.  Or twice.

Over the past few years, I’ve really ramped up the amount of collected research material as I got serious about writing books and articles, more so than when I was putting together my website.  My researcher sends me a lot of material on a weekly basis, I’ve probably purchased about 500 books in just the past five years or so, and copied huge amounts of material in repositories and collections in that time frame.  All of which began forming a clutter in my library that I just couldn’t take anymore.

The piles and piles of papers were getting unwieldy.  In the back of my library is a large closet, about 60 square feet, the floor of which was nearly covered with paper piles.  For the Stuart’s Ride book project, I would use a particular source and then put it in the piles.  God help me if I had to try to go back and find a particular paper in those piles – it could take hours.  Much of the piles contained sources I’d accumulated for future projects – with nothing grouped together.  Some smaller shelves in the closet were already stuffed with binders full of copies of books and newspaper articles.  As I’ve posted previously, Microsoft’s new online historical book site has been keeping my printer busy as I print off dozens of useful books, with no organized place to store them.

Having a vacation day yesterday (Tuesday) motivated me to finally organize this closet.  My wife had to work all day, so I knew I’d be able to work on the closet without bothering anyone.  In the morning I went to Lowe’s and loaded up on 6 oak shelves, all the necessary brackets and hardware, and other things I’d need.  When I got back home, the closet, of course, needed cleaning out.

I took all the piles of papers and boxes out, creating one huge pile on the floor in the library.  Good thing the better half wasn’t home, because if she’d seen the mess she would have thought I was nuts.  Plus, she probably doesn’t realize that even I had this much “stuff.”  Hell, I didn’t either until I had everything out and piled up.

I set up my radial saw in the garage, and cut all the shelving needed.  I put the brackets on the wall, and once installed I had over 50 linear feet of new shelving.  I broke for lunch and determined that by the time my wife got home at 4pm, everything in the closet was going to be organized.

Well, I almost made it.  When she got home I was still putting the last of the binders and new folders on the shelves, but I was nearly done.  Now, the binders of newspaper articles has its own shelf, with each binder neatly labeled.  Same for the binders containing copies of books and large manuscript material.  There are still some piles of unfiled papers – but now they’re on the shelves and organized by subject matter, ready to be put into their own binders and folders.  This I’ll do over the coming weeks.  As more material comes in from my researcher and other sources, it’ll have a place to go where I can find it easily and work with it.

I’m happy, the wife’s happy, and I can find everything for my current book and articles project.

Oh, and I discovered that the floor of the closet is carpeted – I had forgotten because I hadn’t seen it in years…

Plenty of “Plenty”

I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday – the four-day weekend was rare and welcome.  Today we’re back in the saddle here in the office, and even a four-day vacation goes quicker than you think.

As co-author Eric Wittenberg recently posted on his blog, our book Plenty of Blame to Go Around: Jeb Stuart’s Controversial Ride to Gettysburg is currently being featured in one form or another in a lot of the Civil War print media at the moment.  An adaptation of our chapters on the fights at Fairfax Court House and Westminster is the cover/feature story of the current issue of Civil War Times magazine.  Eric and I would like to thank editor Chris Lewis for this opportunity, and for his interest in the article.  A very positive book review by esteemed historian Jeff Wert is the lead review in the new issue of America’s Civil War magazine.  I hold Jeff’s opinions in very high regard, and appreciate his analysis of our work very much. 

The new (January 2007) issue of The Gettysburg Magazine features an updated adaptation of our chapter on the Westminster fight.  Eric and I wrote this article with the magazine’s concentration on the Gettysburg Campaign in mind, and we included some more primary sources that came into our hands after the book’s release.  Folks who read this particular article will truly have the most updated scholarship on the June 30, 1863 fight at Westminster between Stuart’s cavalry and less than 100 upstarts of the 1st Delaware Cavalry.

Coming soon will be a special issue of Blue&Gray magazine that will feature our historiography of Stuart’s ride and driving tour.  Eric and I look forward to this particular effort, in which we’ll really be able to showcase the battlefields and the ground.  For folks who have already read our book, I think they’ll truly appreciate what we’ll be able to do with the narrative and the tour. 

All in all, it gratifies both of us that we’ve been able to bring the issue of Stuart’s ride and its impact on the Gettysburg Campaign to the fore of discussion again.  Hopefully we’re causing students to look at the issue in a new and deeper light.  Really, folks, that’s what it’s all about.  The book could make it to the New York Times Bestseller List (hey, I can dream, right?) but neither of us would still ever even recover the finances we have in the research of the book.  But the attention the book and the subject has been garnering lately reaffirms the fact that our efforts can be rewarded simply with good feelings and positive comments.  That’s really all a historian wants anyway.