Thomas Jefferson, in an 1816 letter to a member of the Virginia General Assembly, made this observation: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”…

Rosh Hashanah Almost every night, late at night, I watch documentaries about the biggest event in the history of the world, World War II. This was not that long ago. I was still alive in its closing months since I…

Two months after the Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, the Union Army of the Cumberland under the command of Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans and the Confederate Army of the Tennessee under Gen. Braxton Bragg clashed near Chickamauga Creek in…

If Donald Trump were imprisoned and then found dead, hanging in his cell, his repp-stripe tie serving as a noose, would you be surprised? I wouldn’t be. The Justice Department would redouble its commitment to protect democracy, promising to imprison…

Thirty years ago, before the term “woke” was coined into the American lexicon, when “virtue signaling” was unknown, and when (mostly white) boys and men weren’t quite yet considered the root of all evil, the Disney corporation floated the idea…

Memorial Day began in the years following the Civil War. The Civil War was fought between the Northern and Southern states and lasted from 1861 to 1865. When the war was over, family members began to take regular trips to…

To the End of the Earth: The US Army and the Downfall of Japan, 1945 John C. McManus (Dutton Caliber, 448 pages, $35) The best historians use hindsight to place events in a clearer perspective than heretofore understood. Military historian…

I am writing this during the last hours of Good Friday. The crude, empty cross of my parish has been changed this afternoon for one with Christ crucified, presiding over the temple. However, when you read this, it will be…

Gentleman Bandit: The True Story of Black Bart, the Old West’s Most Infamous Stagecoach Robber By John Boessenecker (Hanover Square Press, 376 pages, $32.99) Stagecoach holdups were a staple of those Western movies of the fifties that I so enjoyed…

Regarding “The Civil War I Grew Up With”: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is one of the best contemporary conservative authors. I grew up with the Civil War, too! My grandfather was born in 1855, the youngest of my great-grandparents’ three…