Happy Independence Day!

Here's to a happy and safe celebration for all of us on the anniversary of our independence!
Amidst your fun, fireworks, and barbeque, take a moment and read The Declaration of Independence again. No need to memorize or write a paper; just read it for your own satisfaction.

Why Gettysburg Still And Always Matters

The battlefield charge is a unique moment in military history; often tragic and bloody, these times when brave men rush into the face of enemy guns quickly become the stuff of myth and legend (the Charge of the Light Brigade, Henry V's "once more into the breach, dear friends) There is a long list of famous battlefield charges in military history, and 145 years ago, the American contribution was made on the field between Seminary Ridge and Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg.
After eyeing each other across No Man's Land all morning, and hunkering under a multi-hundred gun artillery barrage that could be heard for miles in every direction, the two armies again came to grips in a desperate and doomed assault forever known as Pickett's Charge.
After a day of tremendous victory, followed by a day of frustrated assaults on both Union flanks, General Robert E. Lee was anxious to thrust a large force against the Union center on the third day of fighting in an attempt to break their lines and drive the Army of the Potomac from the field. This massive task fell to three division from the Confederate I Corps and III Corps, none more famous than that of General George Pickett.
The task of these roughly 12,500 men was a tall one, as they would have to cross 3/4 of mile of open field, taking front and flank fire the whole way, then charge right into the muzzles of the Union troops at the center of the line, troops that were ready and waiting.
The Union commander, General George Meade, had been especially prescient the night before and, at the conclusion of a council of war on the night of July 2, he took Gen. John Gibbon aside. Gibbon's forces would be defending the central portion of the Union line the next morning, and Meade told him that his troops should make ready, as they would bear the brunt of the next day's Confederate assault. Low stone walls were fashioned, rifles were loaded and stacked in easy reach, and artillery was brought forward.
To Lee, this assault seemed the grand culmination of this tremendous battle, but to General James Longstreet, his chief advisor, it was clearly a disaster in the making. Lee would have none of it; however, and the assault went off as planned.
And, as expected, was crushed under the weight of Union metal and courage.
Of the roughly 12,500 men who rushed Cemetery Ridge, more than 50% were either killed, wounded, or captured in less than one hour of fighting. The attack did punch through the Union line in two places, most famously near the Copse of Trees, but both breaches were quickly sealed by reinforcements (including a regiment near and dear to my heart, the 20th Massachusetts).
As the Confederates straggled back to their lines, it was clear that a tremendous victory had been won by the Army of the Potomac, and Lee, desperate to rally his soldiers, was heard to tell several that "this was all my fault". When Lee came to General Pickett, who had survived the charge by hunkering down at the Codori Farm away from the frontline, and asked him to rally his division, Pickett reportedly replied "General Lee, I have no division."
The two armies would again stare at each other across a bloody field for more than a day. Then, on the 5th of July, 1863, General Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia would retire the field and begin the long retreat back to Virginia.
For the Union army and the North, this was a huge victory, made even greater by the capture of Vicksburg by Union forces under General Ulysses Grant on the 4th of July. These two victories were monumental boosts to the North and equally shattering blows to the Confederacy.
In the final accounting, there were somewhere between 45-51,000 casualties in the three days of fighting at Gettysburg. This was a fight that forever seared itself into the national consciousness and remains of particular interest of both scholars and tourists alike.
For me, there are several reasons why Gettysburg is and will likely always be of particular interest. One is the idea of Gettysburg as myth and part of our collective memory. As an adjunct to my study of 19th century America as part of my history degree at UCLA, I also studied ancient Greek history, and there is a wonderful connection between the two through this battle.
Another reason is that this is the only battlefield I've visited, walked, and sifted between my fingers. It's one thing to read about a battle, it's something altogether different to stare at the landmarks and walk the ground. Poignant and heartwrenching hardly begin to describe it.
In my course of study at UCLA, I worked with an amazing professor, Dr. Joan Waugh, who taught 5 of my classes. As a senior, I was in a seminar called "The Soldier's Experience in the Civil War" and as a final project, each student was to study a certain regiment. I adopted the 20th Massachusetts, and several months and many tens of pages later, I had drafted my paper. This regiment, known as the Harvard Regiment, stood its ground during Pickett's Charge and helped win the day. There is an amazing monument to the Harvard Regiment on Cemetery Ridge just south of the Copse of Trees, and to stand there on a warm day and think about the men I had studied; what they believed, why they fought, how they suffered and died brought tears to my eyes.
The final reason is that The Jess came with me on that trip. We had only been dating for a few months, and the trip had been planned even before we met. I asked her if she wanted to come with, not sure what response to expect. Not only did she book a ticket, but she started pulling books off my shelves and reading about the battle in preparation. There are few people who know as much about General John Reynolds as my wife, and we had an amazing time sharing the experience together. I was blown away by her shared enthusiasm for something I was so passionate about.
Best of all, I realized during our trip to Gettysburg that I was in love with her.

145 Years Ago In The Valley Of Death

Today marks the 145th anniversary of the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Throughout the day there was vicious fighting all along the famous Union "fishhook" line, running from Culp's Hill down to Little Round Top and the base of Big Round Top. The carnage along the line was so intense and so chaotic that reasonable estimates of casualties in places like the Wheatfield, the Slaughter Pen, and the Valley of Death are impossible to calculate and only final tallies of total casualties for the battle are possible.
The Confederate army surged against the Union lines in famous fighting at Cemetery and Culp's Hill on the northern part of the field, but the Army of the Potomac stubbornly held its position, even as the fighting carried on into the darkness. On the southern and central sectors, other famous names were born amidst the savage fighting at Little Round Top, Devil's Den, the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard, and along the Emmitsburg Road.
This battle was tremendously complex, with thousands of men crisscrossing along miles of territory. Of these countless legions, some names would join the pantheon of famous American warriors: Chamberlain, Crawford, Hancock, Vincent, Warren, Hood, Oates. These men are forever emblazoned into our history not only for their individual acts, but as representatives of the efforts of the thousands that they led in battle.
At the end of the day, the two armies stared at each other across a No Man's Land strewn with casualties. It is hard to picture virgin American farmland covered with blood and gore like something out of the D-Day scene in "Saving Private Ryan", but on this field, like thousands of others on hundreds of days during the Civil War, that was the reality.
The battle was not yet decided, and it would be left to a third day of fighting to decide this contest.

Andy Murray Nickname Contest

With regards to our contest to assign the best nickname possible to this guy...


-enter as many times as you like
-I will post entries as they come in (keep it relatively clean, if you please)
-the winner will receive a bag of fresh-roasted coffee from the Tipsy Historian
-for more material/inspiration regarding our target, er, subject, click here

Wimbledon Semifinal Roster Almost Complete (This Post With Bonus Feature!)

Oooh boy are the Williams sisters just making a mockery of Wimbledon or what? Both stormed into the semifinals of the singles draw yesterday and today, they joined forces to advance to the semis of the doubles as well. What makes this so special is that frequently when a player in the singles draw who even deigns to play doubles advances in singles, they will often default in doubles to conserve strength.
Evidently, Serena and Venus have strength to spare as they close in on what is looking inevitably like an all-Williams, all the time Wimbledon. They are really in rare air here, I don't believe that a doubles team (let alone a winning doubles team) has been made up of both singles finalists. History in the making, and we all know how I feel about history...
Speaking of history, Roger Federer made a bit more of that today by advancing to his 17th straight Grand Slam singles semifinal. To put this in perspective, this means he has gotten into the final weekend of every Slam for more than 4 solid years! Hard to think of a comparison, because there really isn't one..
In the other major news of the day, Captain Bicep himself, Andy Murray took on Rafael Nadal in another quarterfinal showdown. Would the newest Bowflex posterboy have the flex to down the man with battleaxe arms?
No.
Murray spent the better part of the morning picking up shards of his ego as Nadal showed what true tennis muscle looks like in a short and sweet three set victory. Best part of the coverage of this drubbing? Turns out the grassy hillside upon which Wimbledon fans can watch matches on the big screen, previously known as "Henman Hill" in honor of Tim Henman is now known as "Murray's Mound" Anyway, I'm sure we'll be hearing more about the Scrawny Scot in a few months at the US Open. In the meanwhile, the Andy Murray nickname contest starts now, so submit your nickname and be recognized!

BONUS FEATURE
check out this fantastic link: tennis players dressed up as their favorite Olympic sport! I liked Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram from Israel as judo artists

Winning Hearts, Minds, and Palates, One Cup At A Time

One of the nicest offshoots of roasting coffee at home is giving fresh-roasted beans to friends and family. These are the people who have had to listen to me verbalize "how fantastic" and "so delicious" for months, and giving them a taste of what I've been blathering about is quite satisfying. The general response has been exceedingly positive, for the obvious reason that this stuff is fantastic, and am slowly setting up a little family tree of roasters.
One colleague at work is already roasting, one is going to buy a roaster. My sister and I are in the midst of establishing a nice little intra-state commerce of coffee beans for homemade apricot jam. The Jess, of course, is my mega-super sidekick in all this, with her primary responsibility being to brew my pre-night call cuppa.
It's the funniest thing, and part of what makes this hobby so fun; even though she uses the exact same beans and equipment as me, the cups she makes turn out with subtle but distinct differences from mine. She has even taken a turn at the roaster, with a magnificent outcome. Come to think of it, I need her to roast some more of that crazy Yellow Bourbon varietal tonight.
The best one-liner to come of my early efforts at conversion was with my mother in law. As I handed her a bag of fresh beans, I asked her "do you take your coffee...awesome?"
She replied yesterday that she does.
The next step in my development as a roaster is definitely going to be refining my roasting profiles. Thus far, I've used the presets on my iRoast 2 with good success, but want to move into the more advanced roasting where temperature and timing are more strictly controlled. To hear the ace roasters at Sweet Maria's tell it, each bean peaks with a specific roasting pattern of temperature and time. Now that the palate is getting a bit more refined, that's going to be the next frontier.
If anyone would like to get a sample of roasted beans, please let me know, and if you ever have questions about getting started, getting beans, etc, I would love to be of assistance.

145 Years Ago In a Pennsylvania Crossroads Town...

...the Union and Confederate armies clashed in the first of three days of fighting that would become forever known as the Battle of Gettysburg. Over the course of the following decades, this battle has risen to mythic proportions in the minds of many Americans, standing alongside the great conflicts in world history.
This battle, which would prove to be the costliest three days in American history, started to the northwest of Gettysburg on the morning of July 1, 1863, then tore through the town itself, with the first day's fighting grinding to a halt south of town. On this day, names like Buford, Reynolds, Archer, Gordon, and Ewell, and places like McPherson's Ridge, Culp's Hill, Oak Hill, and Blocher's Knoll became forever part of American military lore. Please avail yourself of the wikipedia entry covering the battle; since today marks the anniversary of the first day of battle, just focus on the introduction and the description of the first day's fighting.