Like many of you I have a lot to be thankful for this past year, including good health and a loving family. As always, thank you for taking the time from your busy day to visit Civil War Memory. Although the real anniversary is not til November, I am thinking of the entirety of 2015 as representing a decade of blogging. Hard to believe. To mark the occasion I will soon be unveiling a custom re-design that is currently in the works. I hired one of my favorite web designers to overhaul the site and so far it looks amazing.
Overall, this was a good year. It’s never easy moving to a new place, especially a large city like Boston. I’ve enjoyed living in the city from the beginning, but it wasn’t until this past year that I truly felt comfortable and confident about how I might be able to contribute to the community’s vibrant public history scene. With that in mind I decided to make some pretty big changes in the coming year, some of which has already fallen into place, while other pieces to the puzzle are hopefully forthcoming. It’s a bit nerve racking, but also incredibly exciting. I should be able to share more in the near future.
My hope is that whatever the next year looks like that it leaves some time for research. My book project on Governor John Andrew has morphed into a story specifically about his role and relationship with the state’s African American units. Andrew’s role in organizing and supporting these units has never fully been told and it will also give me the opportunity to look more closely at the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. I’ve got a couple of article-length essays in the works, which should be completed in the next few months.
I am also working on a book of essays about the sesquicentennial that is based on the blog. It’s a bit more challenging than I first thought, but a lot of fun having to go through old posts and wonder what the heck I was thinking. Right now I am working on a section (may turn into a chapter) that explores the evolution of Ta-Nahesi Coates’s thinking about the Civil War era. I can’t think of a public intellectual that has been more engaged in the Civil War and historical memory during the sesquicentennial.
Hope you stick around for the ride to see how it all unfolds. For now, Happy New Year and be safe.