Wow

Wow, so almost a year now and I'm finally on my second post.  Well progress is progress I guess.

A lot has happened in the past year.  Some things have been good and others not so much, but most notably I was finally ordained a Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide.  This accomplishment I am most proud of and am very much looking forward to begin guiding in the spring.  It will be great to finally be able to get paid for something I've been doing for fun for more than a decade.  I have fond memories of being a young (and sadly at the time 'farby') reenactor hanging out at the Angle on Cemetery Ridge and talking to anyone who would listen to a 12 year old pontificate about Pickett's Charge.  I'm a bit more polished in my presentation now- something for which I hope my future tours will appreciate.

In other news I've settled in downtown Frederick, Maryland, which I'm certain is the best place to live in the region.  History, great food and beer are in abundance which is all I could really ask for- and all within walking distance.

I do hope to be more active this year, so if you happened to stumble upon this post please check back soon.

Getting Started

I have been staying tuned to the Civil War blogosphere for some time now, and have often thought about blogging myself.  Well, as you can see, I've decided to make the leap.

I will actually have two blogs going by April.  Shot & Shell, my personal one; and The Great Task Before Us, an official blog I will maintain for my employer, the Gettysburg Foundation. 

I am very proud of being able to work on Great Task.  The goal there is to reach out to the membership of the Gettysburg Foundation and ask them to send me whatever information they have on their Civil War ancestors which will be the foundation of the blog.  It seems like an ambitious undertaking considering I expect a deluge of enthusiastic GF members sending in information on great-great-great-grandpa, but I think modern internet research sources like Ancestry and Footnote will make the project manageable.  I certainly want to give it as much historical integrity as I can, so being able to access primary source documents at the click of a mouse while researching all the soldiers and sailors being sent in to me will be very convenient.

Shot and Shell will be my own personal research projects, notes on my hobby; Civil War living history, and any thoughts that I have on the much anticipated Civil War Sesquicentennial (or not so much anticipated depending on who you ask).  Needless to say, what appears on this blog are my own thoughts which have no correlation with the Gettysburg Foundation, Friends of Gettysburg or the National Park Service blah blah blah.  I will have to work up a more formal disclaimer at some point.

Thanks for reading and I hope to have some cool things ready to go here soon.