John Buford is one of those generals from the Civil War who deserves to be much better known than he is today. He almost became better known when he was played in the film Gettysburg by Sam Elliott, but I suspect nearly everyone leaving the theater came out without actually knowing Elliott's character's name. The two books about Buford that I am discussing here are:
General John Buford: A Military Biography, Edward Longacre, Combined Books, 1995
"The Devil's to Pay": John Buford at Gettysburg, Eric J. Wittenberg, Savas Beatie, 2014
I just finished Longacre, the older of the two, and decided a comparison and contrast would be more interesting than a straightforward review.
Longacre and Wittenberg are authors who have devoted much of their time to Cavalry operations, and both have spent a lot of time on Gettysburg in particular. Since Buford's finest hour as a Cavalry commander was certainly the first day of Gettysburg, both authors deserve to be taken seriously.
Longacre's book appeared in 1995, 2 years after the theatrical release of Gettysburg; Longacre served as an advisor for the film. In his Introduction, he explains that there is a dearth of some traditional primary documentation - Buford did not leave much in the way of written correspondence. Longacre had long regarded writing a Buford biography as unreasonable, but the film production persuaded him to try. The lack of correspondence can be seen in how the book is written, as in some places Longacre has to speculate mildly about things that a letter might have made clear (if there was a letter).
Wittenberg has a different task. He is focusing on Buford's military operations through Gettysburg, which are well documented.
Both authors hold Buford in high regard, and they are correct; Buford was almost certainly the finest Federal Cavalry commander of the Civil War (Custer's PR not withstanding). Longacre is a nice biography, but a bit light on maps. Wittenberg is more focused and detailed, and has a number of excellent maps. Wittenberg is in print, Longacre is something you'll need to find used.
Both are good books, it depends on what you're looking for.
The history of code breaking is vast, complex and fascinating. There is much more to it than just the story of Alan Turing and Bletchley Park. Two recent books, this one and The Woman Who Smashed Codes examine women code breakers in the US during the first half of the 1900s. I've reviewed the latter elsewhere - it is the story of Elizebeth Friedman, a trailblazer of considerable significance from the period immediately before WWI through WWII. It dovetails in an effective way with Code Girls
Code Girls is the story of the women who were hired by the US Army and Navy to break codes during the war. Rosie the Riveter is the story we're all familiar with, we are less familiar with this story because the work of the Code Girls was a closely held secret. The story of codebreaking and the women who did it is, though, an important one.
Code Girls is not a text in code making or breaking, but it does spend a little time on codes in order to make it clear how challenging the work was. The Army and Navy would spend the war actively recruiting in colleges where women who normally would transition into careers as teachers were instead given an opportunity to contribute to the war effort.
Part of this story ties into the story of Bletchley Park. When the German Navy transitioned to the four rotor Enigma machine, the solution once found exceeded the capacity of the "bombes" used at Bletchley Park for extracting keys. A talented engineer at NCR devised a new, much faster bombe and it was put into service; the machines were fed and cared for by one group of women code breakers. The British would turn all decryption of naval Engima intercepts over to this unit. Mundy tells the story of the women recruited to help assemble the new bombe, many of whom followed the machine into operations.
The story also covers the US code breaking efforts against the various Japanese systems. There are a couple of famous Japanese codes ("Red" and "Purple"), but there were many many more and the Code Girls eventually got into nearly all of them. Frequently the US high command knew more about what was going on at Japanese outposts than the Japanese did.
Mundy examines the lives they lived in the DC area as well - women living on their own in a manner rarely afforded to them before the war changed everything.
This is an excellent, enjoyable and very readable book. Highly recommended.
One major collectable category is Souvenir Sheets. they've been around for quite a while, but in recent years there have been more and more of them. as with many things in the world of stamp collecting, they're less about postage and more about the collection.
Here is souvenir sheet from the US in 1947, commemorating the first US postage stamps.
Note that the stamps embedded in the sheet are valid for postage, you can cut them out and use them, or put the entire sheet on a package. But they're imperforate, you have to cut them out to use the individually. Early stamps were commonly imperforate.
The second replacement for the failed APC battery backup unit arrived. It was much better packed, suffered no damage in shipping and appears to work right. The original failed unit has been returned, and the first replacement (damaged in shipping) goes back today. So ultimately things worked out ok.
i found it necessary to replace one of my old APC 1000VA backups with a new one recently. a new BX1000M arrived a couple of days ago, and was working well in my home office until about 2 hours ago when it threw an "F02" alarm. the manual said that meant there was a dead short on one of the things plugged in and i should start trying to figure out what it was. i was just starting to go through the procedure when the alarm changed to F06 which means "call tech support". i tried unplugging it from the wall, disconnecting the battery and reconnecting, but it still alarmed and threw an F06 after 10 seconds of normal running with no load connected at all.
i went to their online chat. the tech rep asked about power fluctuations and i advised him that we'd had a snow storm, so maybe but i hadn't seen any clear symptoms. he gave me a reset procedure which i applied; no change in behavior. he then advised me that i should wait until the fluctuations were over, to which i replied, roughly:
1) i never said there were fluctuations, only that there might be and i'd seen no evidence
2) what the hell good is a UPS that that throws a "call tech support" alarm in response to power fluctuations
3) i have owned many APC UPS units in my time and this would be the first one to ever behave this way.
so he has issued an RMA and i'll have to go without a UPS for maybe as much as a week before the replacement shows up.
Published in 2012, winner of the Bancroft Prize, I've finally gotten to it in my backlog.
The vast bulk of military history books consist consist of battle and campaign accounts, and biographies of military leaders. There are few books on more abstract subjects in the field. Mark Grimsley's classic The Hard Hand of War is a notable entry in the latter category. Grimsley covers the evolution of Federal military policies towards the Confederacy as they progressed during the war.
Lincoln's Code intersects with Grimsley's work in an interesting way. While Grimsley focuses on the narrow 5 year span of the Civil War, Witt's timeline runs from George Washington's early experiences as a Colonial officer in Virginia during the French-and-Indian wars through to the Philippine Insurrection. Witt's focus is on the evolving state of the laws of war, and in particular, he points to the development of the Lieber Code in 1862, issued to the Union forces as General Orders 100, as a critical pivot point.
Sometimes when I list new acquisitions people ask me to comment on specific books after I've read them. These requests can affect my reading order. Here is the current short queue:
Code Girls (women working as code breakers for the US in WWII) The Half Has Never Been Told (the economics of slavery in the antebellum US) To The Shores of Tripoli (the very beginnings of the US Navy and Marines)
Some books that are coming out, some soon, and some are far enough out that I don't yet know the titles...
Meade and Lee at Bristoe Station: The Problems of Command and Strategy after Gettysburg, from Brandy Station to the Buckland Races, August 1 to October 31, 1863 Jeffrey Hunt
Why yes, that is a very long title. This is the second of three volumes addressing a generally neglected period - what did Meade and Lee do in the months right after Gettysburg? The previous volume is Meade and Lee After Gettysburg: The Forgotten Final Stage of the Gettysburg Campaign, from Falling Waters to Culpeper Court House, July 14-31, 1863. Why yes, that is another very long title. The new volume is available for pre-orders right now although the ETA is uncertain.
New biography of Frederick Douglass David Blight
Blight is one of the more significant modern historians and writers, and this book is squarely in his area of specialty.
New biography of Robert E. Lee Allen C. Guelzo
Guelzo is another top historian and writer, and this book should fill a major hole. There is a dire need for a good modern biography of Lee (the Korda book from 2014 does not qualify in my view.) While waiting, Reading The Man by Elizabeth Brown Pryor is a good way to learn about Lee.
This book is well outside my normal reading habits. As a result, I'm in no position to comment on a lot of details I'd normally go into. But it is a fascinating book by any standard.
A warning for judgmental readers: this is not a book for you. Lloyd lived the life of sex, drugs and rock and roll, and he tells his story, pretty much all of it. I'm pretty sure he's not looking for anyone's approval.
Richard Lloyd is an influential figure in the history of Rock and Roll. A fine guitarist, he was there from the very beginning of CBGB's, the famous NYC club, and a founding member of Television, one of those great bands that nobody ever heard of. Seriously, go listen to Marquee Moon, on of the great recordings in the history of rock:
The initial challenge for me was a simple one - Lloyd's mysticism is unnatural for me, and when I talk about being judgemental, what I had to do was step away from my normal viewpoint and accept that he saw somethings very differently and accept that he's telling his own story.
As for what's in the book - lots of stuff. Lloyd and a friend blowing up the friend's parent's Chinese Laundry (not on purpose), Lloyd learning to play guitar indirectly from Hendrix, via Lloyd's best friend Velvert, Lloyd encountering Tom Miller (later Tom Verlaine), and starting to work on the band that would become Television, and the opening of CBGBs. Lloyd's post Television work is covered too, his solo recording and his work with artists like Matthew Sweet.
It's an engaging read, I recommend it to anyone interested in this period of the history of Rock and Roll.
at various times in my life, i have read substantial amounts of SF & Fantasy. lately i'm mostly reading Civil War History, but i still try to pay attention to what's going on in SF. the recent controversy over Hugo Voting caused me to take a look around. here are some thoughts on what i found.
this is how i started. for any given year it's worthwhile to read the nominees as well as the winners. tastes vary and frequently i like one of the nominees best that year. secondly, what i wanted to do was try and figure out what the Puppies were so upset about. they were complaining about a trend away from the kind of SF they like, which seemed to me to be an odd claim. keep in mind that there are two parallel things going on here; there is what is being published and what is getting awards. there seems to be lots of stuff being published that the puppies like, but it's not getting awards and that is making them unhappy.
so i have started reading. i had previously read and enjoyed Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice series, so i set out to read The Goblin Emperor next. Finished it on a plane flight, enjoyed it a lot, think the nomination is well deserved. Next up will be The Three Body Problem and i'm looking forward to it. i seem to be enjoying the nominated works that the puppies don't like.
so i'm not really done, but i'm going to present some preliminary thoughts.
the puppies describe a past that i think doesn't really exist, at least not in their lifetimes. i started reading SF in the early 70s, when i was in middle school. at that time, the "New Wave" had been around for a few years and Dangerous Visions was a well known, critically acclaimed landmark. Harlan Ellison had already written and received a Hugo for I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. Ursula K Le Guin's great novels, The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed had swept the novel category for the Hugo and Nebula Awards the years they were published.
So i'm having trouble understanding what's changed in 40-45 years. the Hugo awards have been honoring socially conscious writing for a long, long time. the puppie's fondly remembered past would seem to be imaginary.
but i know that some of the touchiness is over some of the shorter fiction. i'll have to go read that soon (time permitting). but so far, what i'm seeing is that the Hugo awards are still functional as a guide to good SF reading, even if you do have to pay attention to the context now in a way you didn't have to before.
some quick thoughts on things that may be important if you decide to go to Whiskey Hill Raceway aka Palmer Motorsports Park
1) gas is way cheaper in Palmer than it is in Springfield, by 10 cents/gallon or more.
2) looks like there may be some decent places to eat on US 20 between Palmer and Springfield, don't know because the worker party food was more than adequate
3) the "Howard Johnson's Express" on US 20 in Springfield was cheap, a little tired but clean, and not as noisy as i feared (the pricing suggests it might serve as a residential facility as well as for transients, which is often a recipe for noise late at night). the Applebee's across the road only rates about 1.5 stars in Yelp!. Oh, and the HoJo express does have mini fridges in the rooms if you need to cool some beer.
4) the Donut Shop at the foot of the hill in West Warren (near the track) is a Dippin Donuts, not a Dunkin Donuts. Eerily similar, but not the same. The breakfast sandwich was ok, but apparently the track caterer is going to be doing breakfast while they work out the long term concession situation.
5) US 20 between Springfield and Palmer is a pretty reasonable alternative to the Mass Pike.
6) the current impound situation is challenging due to the lack of an exit, and T turns in a GT-1 car aren't the most fun thing you can do while driving one. in a couple of weeks, they may well be trying a different layout.
7) this is a fun facility, with the rough edges that are to be expected from something this new. i imagine it will continue to improve. the racers are still working out what the racing line is. this may take a while.
So I'd discussed my first month as a T-Mobile customer Here.
The experiment is busy coming to an end, and while previously I'd been kind of annoyed, I am now quite angry. For all their "uncarrier" blatherings, this is a seriously broken company.
First, the pleasant part -- all the customer facing folks I encountered were polite and behaved like they were interested in quality of service.
But this does not extend throughout the organization; some elements of T-Mobile are sheltered from customer service considerations and show little interest. What's more, they seem to have a lack of ability to consider the customer point of view.
The specific issue that caused me to decide to leave is that their coverage map, which shows that I should be roaming onto ATT in the area immediately around my house, is not telling the truth. Even if I turn off automatic carrier selection in my phone and try to manually go onto ATT's network, it doesn't work. I know the phone is ok because on a long trip to NC and back, i frequently saw the phone switch over to ATT - the phone is ok, this is a local problem.
I have opened three tickets on this subject, all of them have been closed by Engineering for various reasons. Engineering is clearly not concerned about this coverage issue; closing tickets seems to be the metric by which they are being judged, rather than actually fixing problems. This does not make for good customer experience.
Moreover, I have complained to them point blank that their coverage map is wrong, the coverage seemingly isn't going to be fixed, and this effectively constitutes false advertising - and i see little evidence that anything will be done about that, either. and it's the bogus coverage map that caused me to take this gamble.
T-Mobile has a wifi calling option, which i've been trying to use. it is erratic, likely because my TWC cable broadband is erratic. I also find that frequently i need to power cycle the phone to make it work, even though my phone always acquires my home wifi quickly.
So earlier today, a T-Mobile rep on their twitter help line offered a "CellSpot" wifi router which they're sure will help with the reliability of the local wifi calling. i don't really see why it will work - TWC broadband has always been flakey where i live, and while T-Mobile's willing to loan it to me rather than charge me the outright $200, they do want a $25 deposit for the bloody thing - and it still won't fix the broader coverage issues. so they have a non-solution to the coverage problem that will only cost me an additional $25 (from all my years in IT, i tend to have a very bad reaction to anyone that responds to their own poor performance by trying to separate me from more money.)
At the ATT store, when i called about the phone lock (more on that in a second), they suddenly offered me a cell phone booster thingy.
Now about the phone lock - back in december, i bought a full priced phone and went on no contract pricing. it turns out that they lock the full price phones and you have to be a customer either 60 or 40 days (60 according to the phone rep, 40 according to the web site, no idea which is actually true.) i haven't been a customer of theirs long enough, but i'm having a lot of trouble convincing myself to suffer this service any longer. financial prudence, though, is likely to require that i go back and suffer. i do wonder if they would continue the unlock clock, or reset it back to 40 (or 60) days in order to stretch out the suffering.
but for the moment, i have a useless iPhone 6, locked to T-Mobile with an ATT sim in it. Cell phone carriers wonder why we hate them. or maybe they know.
I've been working just a little on how to integrate OpenStreetMap and OpenHistoricalMap depictions of historic race tracks; here is a test case of the second Watkins Glen circuit overlaid on the current (fourth) Watkins Glen International. Use the sliders to change the emphasis. Need to do something about the colors; I want better contrast between historic and current.
