Gettysburg, PA – Mid-afternoon on July 1, 1863, a young seamstress named Virginia Mary “Jennie” Wade, along with her mother and two younger brothers, left her home in the center of Gettysburg to be with her oldest sister, who earlier that day endured a horrific childbirth, as Confederate soldiers marched on the 2,400-resident town.
The Confederacy’s push into Union territory was the first salvo of what would later be seen as the most decisive battle of America’s Civil War. For three days Gettysburg shook as nearly 94,000 Union and 72,000 Confederate troops slaughtered each other with bayonets and close-range… Continue Reading Tag Archives: History
The Unlucky Civilian
Gettysburg, PA – Mid-afternoon on July 1, 1863, a young seamstress named Virginia Mary “Jennie” Wade, along with her mother and two younger brothers, left her home in the center of Gettysburg to be with her oldest sister, who earlier that day endured a horrific childbirth, as Confederate soldiers marched on the 2,400-resident town.
The Confederacy’s push into Union territory was the first salvo of what would later be seen as the most decisive battle of America’s Civil War. For three days Gettysburg shook as nearly 94,000 Union and 72,000 Confederate troops slaughtered each other with bayonets and close-range… Continue Reading The World’s First Modern Prison
Fairmount, Philadelphia – Eastern State Penitentiary was conceived in 1787, in the living room of Benjamin Franklin, a leading member of the Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons. The reformist group was appalled by conditions at the recently opened Walnut Street Jail, located behind Independence Hall, where guards sold liquor to inmates and often made women available. The reformers believed that a policy of strict solitary confinement would better encourage spiritual development.
In 1790, the society convinced Pennsylvania’s legislature to pass a series of prison reforms, including the construction of Eastern State Penitentiary. The prison opened in 1826.… Continue Reading I Heart Baltimore, Hon
Baltimore, MD – We rolled into Baltimore just after 6 p.m. on Friday, arriving at my friend’s home in the Hampden section on the city’s northwest side. Kendra, an old friend from Madison, moved to Baltimore 18 months ago, where she landed a nice job and has made enviable inroads into Baltimore’s comedy scene. I’ve been meaning to visit and catch a performance. She’s an insanely funny person, and when she’s on, she’s on. But as it happened, she had nothing booked, so instead we went out on the town.
After grabbing dinner, we headed to the Lithuanian Hall for… Continue Reading Final Days in Philly
At last, April is here, which, for me, means shoring up life’s odds and ends in preparation for another journey around America. Namely, this entails getting Purple Thunder, my trusty Ford E-150 Conversion Van, in proper working order. Those that follow this blog regularly will recall the electrical mishaps that put a wrinkly in an otherwise spectacular adventure last summer. While that issue is resolved, Purple Thunder is currently experiencing what I think is an air flow or timing problem. No biggie. I’m taking her in next week for routine maintenance and will have Ernie look into it. Not long… Continue Reading
Nuclear Neighbors
The city of Okuma Japan has been evacuated indefinitely pending the outcome of the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, where the cooling system for at least two of three failing reactors have yet to be powered up more than a week after the area was rattled by a 9.0 earthquake then ravaged by a 33-foot tsunami. So far, nuclear meltdown has spared Japan, but the situation remains serious. As of tonight, engineers are considering whether they’ll have to entomb the plant’s No. 3 reactor in concrete, the ‘Chernobyl Option.’
Predictably, the crisis has raised questions about… Continue Reading Turning Bones into Art
A few Sundays ago, I was at Philadelphia’s Mutter Museum viewing the Hyrtl Skull Collection, an ensemble of multi-ethnic craniums collected from throughout Central and Eastern Europe by Dr. Josef Hyrtl during the early 1800s. Hyrtl, a professor of anatomy at the University of Prague, believed that racial and intellectual traits could be determined by studying the cranial bone structures of various groups. The museum acquired Hyrtl’s 139 skulls, along with thirty-six placentas and six sets of genitals, in 1875.
Beneath each skull is a brief bio of its time as a living thing, including name, country, profession and… Continue Reading The House Where Poe Wrote
At the corner of 7th and Spring Garden Streets in northeastern Philadelphia is a non-descript home flanked by project housing and large tracts of commercial space. Between the years of 1837 and 1844, Edgar Allan Poe lived in Philadelphia, writing many of his most famous works during his time here, including The Gold-Bug, The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Tell-Tale Heart. In all, he published 31 stories while living here.
Poe lived at this house for less than a year in 1843.
Despite the critical successes of his masterworks, Poe remained poor up to his death. Publishers of… Continue Reading The Kentucky Tragedy
Bloomfield, KY – In this grave rests Jerebaum Beauchamp and Anne Cooke, who, since their deaths on July 7, 1826, have lain in an eternal embrace. Forlorn lovers, if you can call them that, Beauchamp and Cooke hatched one of the most diabolical assassination plots in Kentucky history, a revenge tale that has inspired countless works of fiction, including Edgar Allen Poe’s unfinished play Politian and Robert Penn Warren’s World Enough and Time.
At the time, newspapers around the nation published stories about the sensational case, which today would no doubt be prime material for a Dateline exclusive. “It… Continue Reading Desolation
In Sam Shepard’s latest short story collection, Day Out of Days, there’s a short-short story about a guy who irks the cook after hitting on the waitress and not finishing his steak. He tells the cook there’s nothing wrong with the steak; he’s just ready for pie. The cook tells him the pies aren’t ready.
“I tell him that’s fine, I’ll just go out and buy a paper and come back. I’ll stroll around the town and take in the sights. He says there are no sights; there is no town. But I tell him I’m a big fan of… Continue Reading 
Highway History: Myself, a Marker and the Massacre