Ode to the Eckley coal breaker
December 13, 2025
Tag: history
Thanksgiving during the Civil War and Lincoln’s resonating message
November 21, 2025
In the fall of 1861, 22-year-old John Williamson was spending his first Thanksgiving away from home, hundreds of miles from his new wife and unborn baby. He’d joined the Union Army and had left his home in Eckley, a coal mining town in northeastern Pennsylvania to be part of the Defenses of Washington. He wrote … More Thanksgiving during the Civil War and Lincoln’s resonating message
Winter soldiering during the Civil War: extracts from a soldier’s letter home in January 1862
January 22, 2025
…and a couple of examples about how the more things change, the more they stay the same. Or change. While we’re dealing with our arctic blast, I’ve been wondering what the weather was like in the winter of 1861-1862, the first winter of the Civil War. Why? Because of the letters of a 23-year-old soldier … More Winter soldiering during the Civil War: extracts from a soldier’s letter home in January 1862
A misty day of remembrance
May 21, 2024
I woke up thinking about John. John Williamson is the Civil War soldier whose letters home to his wife form the core of my book ‘You Dream Every Night That I am Home.” Since I wrote the book, I think about John every Memorial Day. He was 23 years old when he was killed, was … More A misty day of remembrance
“Remember me is all I ask…”
March 23, 2021
A bloody Civil War battle engaging 40,000 soldiers and resulting in 1,500 casualties. A field hospital full of wounded men, 2,500 of whom would be left behind to the enemy as night fell, thunderstorms rolled in, and the battle front shifted. Two historic locomotives—one that would come slowly down the track pushing an armored big … More “Remember me is all I ask…”
Glen Onoko, a place to visit no longer
April 15, 2019
The first place I saw the phrase “Glen Onoko” was in an autograph album that we found in family records after my grandmother passed away. Also known as a friendship album, they were popular in the mid to late 1800s. This album, owned by my great-times-three Aunt Mary Boyd, has signatures in it from the … More Glen Onoko, a place to visit no longer
What is a monument?
March 12, 2019
I spent most of my life in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., which is technically part of the Mid-Atlantic area but I always considered myself a northerner, in the world of north versus south. Recently, my husband and I moved to Virginia, so far south we’re in the Richmond TV market. I wasn’t fully aware … More What is a monument?
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