First Post.

For years, I've been researching the history of the 8th Virginia. It's been a lot of work, crammed into an hour or two a night. I've visited archives in Philadelphia, Winchester, Washington, D.C., and Richmond. I've read reliable first-hand contemporary accounts and unreliable romantic accounts written a century after the war ended. The facts are out there, but they are hard to find. I tell my friends that it's like detective work--I've cast a wide net, because you never know which tiny bits of information might turn out to be significant in light of the next discovery. For a long time, I didn't share what I was doing because it wasn't ready. Much of the research is done now and I've begun work on a manuscript. A lot of people have helped me get this far. This blog is my way of saying "thanks" in the form of updates and a occasional previews.