Post Gettysburg Hangover

Friends,

Let me preface this post by saying two things.  I apologize for the late hour.  Second, I haven't had an adult beverage in so long that I can no longer remember the last time.  I do, however, remember what a hangover feels like.......and thus we have the subject of today's post.

Were any of you, like me, pleased with the amount of media coverage that the 150th Gettysburg event received.  It almost seemed as though, for a few days at least, the Civil War mattered.  We even had an article in the Houston Chronicle about it.  (Or the Houston Pravda as I call it!)  For an all too brief moment, the eyes of many folks in the nation were transfixed by the events in a far away town in Pennsylvania.  In a way that is somewhat reminiscent of when the battle was fought if you think about it.

But now all that has past.  I spent three days in July pondering the significance of those days in my own life.  I then spent the next day pondering the significance of the fall of Vicksburg.  I guess it was such an emotional "high" for me that I am feeling sort of let down lately.  I don't really know how to describe other than it is sort of like a Gettysburg hangover.  In a way it feels like I always felt during my reenactor days when the event ended and I realized that I had to return to the 20th Century.  Remember the line in the movie Patton when George C. Scott says "God how I hate the 20th Century."  I can surely understand his sentiment.

Am I alone in feeling this way or are any of you suffering from a post Gettysburg hangover?  I'm going to the 150th of Sabine Pass in about 5 weeks, so that will be a certain cure.

And the funniest 150th quote belongs to a colleague of mine, an educated person with a college degree, who when asked by me what he knew about Gettysburg responded with "Wasn't that Custer and the Indians?"

My name is Lee Hutch and I am a Civil War Addict who works with folks who wouldn't know Stonewall Jackson if he jumped up and kicked them in the bottom end.  (Or threw lemons at them)

EDIT: Also, dear readers, I'll hit 6000 views with this post!  And all that in three months.  THANK YOU!

My Gettysburg 150th Commemoration

Friends,

I have been racking my brain trying to come up with a suitable way to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.  Until last night, I was drawing a blank.  Then, along about 3 am this morning, it came to me.  The benefit of being an insomniac is that I get some of my best ideas in the wee hours of the morning.  So allow me to briefly tell you how the Civil War Addict blog will honor the memory of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Just as the guns of the Civil War have long ago fallen silent, so too shall my blog.  This will mark my last blog post until July 4th.  There will be no new posts during the three day commemoration events.  Instead of reading my blog on July 1, 2, or 3rd, instead I implore you to quietly remember the veterans of the Battle of Gettysburg along with the civilians who lived there at the time of the battle.  My only Confederate ancestor in the Eastern Theater was killed at Antietam.  However, I do have two ancestors who were with the "Fightin' Fools" of the 8th Ohio Infantry.  They were not only present at Gettysburg but they also helped repulse the brave men who made Pickett's Charge.

So I bid you adieu, friends, until the 4th of July.  I will start that morning off with a new post.  However, if you need your addict fix, feel free to check out my Confessions of a Great War Addict blog here between now and then.  I will still be active on my Civil War Addict page as well.  So rest assured, I won't drop completely off the face of the earth!

My name is Lee Hutch and I will be a silent Civil War Addict blogger until July 4th.