1st Texas at Antietam video

Hello park watchers,


I celebrated this beautiful day by cutting a short Youtube, consisting of footage I captured last Autumn at Antietam when the 1st Texas was visiting. One of the advantages of assisting on the saftey line is the opportunity to preposition cameras for some compelling shots that couldn't be gotten otherwise (for obvious saftey reasons).

Go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMdHX4YoBA0 or simply click on the title of this post to go to the movie.

I hope you enjoy it.

Speaking of cool angles not readily available:



I'm still in the editing phase of my artillery piece, its going to be a while yet, but the sequences will be worth the wait.

See you on the firing line!

Ranger Mannie

No posts for awhile

Whatever bug I had last week, now has me.




Talk more later.

Must have pudding.

m.

Idle hands mean edited videos

Hey gang,

Check out my latest Youtube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC-YXqd5GmY

Or simply click on the title of this post.

The next one will be on Civil War artillery.

Mannie

When This Cruel War is Over: Iraq and the sesquicentennial

Being the age of nine in 1961, I vividly remember that watershed of an event for me, the Civil War Centennial. It was, for better or worse, celebrated in a very public way over the years 1961-1965. My consciousness was raised by a multiple installment pictorial in LIFE magazine, Civil War themed postage stamps, the John Wayne movie "The Horsesoldiers", those classic toy CW soldiers manufactured by Marx, and a cool Civil War color-comic strip that appeared in each Sunday newspaper. Of course there were also special programs on TV, many other cool Civil War toys, and the trip to Getysburg in '64 with my dad and brother.

It was quite a celebration.

Within four years of the close of that event my brother would be in Vietnam, two years after that I'd be on a destroyer in the Pacific and by that time everyone was sick of the war and anything that had to do with war. War movies had lost their popularity, toy soldiers had tanked, GI Joe took an early out and Hasbro turned him into some sort of adventurer cum scientist. Nobody wanted to study on war anymore.

The centennial celebration dodged a bullet. Whither the sesquicentennial?

With 2011 just four years away, and no end of the current war in sight, what might be the impact on public commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War? I'm curious.

I invite your thoughts.

Perhaps, this time around GI Joe will become a Park Ranger...after all he does have that ten point preference.

Just askin' from just north of Boonsboro,

Ranger Mannie

Final Day, Final Project

It's been a great year and a half. Today is the day that's been looming for some time. I'll be weekends only until May. That's the way it is as a seasonal ranger. Man, have I had a great time.

It was mostly us seasonals at the park today and the mood down in the "bull pen" was the usual good-natured banter. However, toward the end of the day a slight pall crept in to the room as we started comparing notes on part-time job opportunities in the area. Then we ended up laughing about how much the workload is going to be increasing for the full-timers (no wonder they're rooting for us). We ended up in agreement about how lucky we are to have the coolest of jobs even on a part time basis, and headed for the parking lot and our homes until next weekend.

Over the last 18 months at the park I undertook several projects that I found quite satisfying, including lots of illustration jobs for park publications and rehabbing our collection of replica artillery projectiles. Today I completed my final project of the season.

During my tours I like to indicate the position of Battery B, 4th U.S. artillery from the Cornfield and tell the Johnny Cook story. The only problem is, you can't see the Battery B guns from the Cornfield. So late last season I cut a red artillery guidon out of a plastic table cloth and stapled it to a truncated sponge-rammer shaft. The result was immediate visibility of the battery position from the Cornfield as well as other key vantage points. I was pretty happy with the impact this simple expedient had on my tours and resolved to replace the plastic with actual fabric.

Today was the day and just in the nick of time. Ranger Christie brought in her sewing machine and I brought in a yard of red cotton cloth. I'm pretty handy with a sewing machine (I was a sewing machine mechanic in a garment factory many, many years ago) and in about an hour I had a nice little guidon all set to go.

The results are pretty convincing...




and very visible from the "sweet spot" in the Cornfield.




Everyone have a great autumn and I'll still see you on the weekends, for awhile, just north of Sharpsburg.

Ranger Mannie