Last evening (Thursday) I made a presentation to the Gettysburg Civil War Roundtable on the new book by Eric Wittenberg and me, Plenty of Blame to Go Around. It was a terrific night, everyone seemed to enjoy my talk, and we all had a number of laughs. My talk and the question and answer period took about an hour or maybe a little less. At the end, I was presented a very beautiful memento of the evening – a very nice certificate from the Round Table, encased in a hand-crafted oak frame. But this wasn’t any regular frame – it was made by Lt. Col. William D. Hewitt (Ret.) from the Longstreet witness tree on the battlefield (toward the south end) that fell in a storm back in 2002. Bill legally acquired much of the wood from this tree, and today makes beautiful crafts from it, such as canes, tables, frames, etc. They are sold around Gettysburg. If you’d like to contact Bill, let me know and I’ll send you his email address. The certificate will hold a place of honor on my office wall for all to see.
The Gettysburg CWRT is truly the cream of the crop, and I had a terrific time with both the meeting and the program, and will most definitely attend again whenever I’m in town on their meeting days. Current President Chuck Teague does a first-class job running the meeting and the organization, and all the members should be proud of the work they’re doing.
Many folks brought the book with them for me to sign, and quite a number purchased it also. Those who had already read it gave me very nice compliments on it, and told me that they learned a great deal about Stuart’s ride, the controversy, and were given quite a bit to think about when evaluating its effect on the outcome of the battle.
Co-author Eric, as I mentioned previously, was unable to attend, so we came up with the idea of possibly doing the Stuart’s Ride to Gettysburg tour with the Round Table members next year, so I hope we have the opportunity. Everyone also passed on their best wishes to Eric’s wife Susan as she begins knee surgery and goes on the road to recovery.
A fabulous night with a terrific group. A big thank you goes out to Chuck, program director Joe Mieczkowski, and all for making me feel so honored and welcome!
Hoofbeats and Cold Steel 