The Most Important Letter That Robert E. Lee Wrote on This Day in 1861 While Lee agonized publicly over disunion, his sister quietly held the line. Nobody made a statue of her.

The Other Resignation Letter That Robert E. Lee Wrote on This Day in 1861 #CivilWarMemory open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...

Beans under a Carolina-Blue Sky: Remembering my Father I’ve put this off for a while now. It’s as if putting it into words means that it’s all real. Which I guess it is. On April 12 – Easter Sunday – my father died. Even n…

Anyways, today would’ve been dad’s 89th.

He was a swell fella.

Sometimes I wonder if it’s a blessing or curse

I’m sorry for the loss of your advisor

It’s something we’ll carry with us to every death, now

My uncle was 94, lived a rich and full life, died in hospice and calm surrounded by his family. We got a chance to visit last month and say our goodbyes. It was beautiful and peaceful. The stark contrast with our father’s sudden and solitary tearing from us is still jarring to think about

I watched my father’s coffin lowered into the grave via a FB messenger video chat, with one sister holding the phone and the other on another screen. It was April 2021.

None of us has recovered. My dad’s brother died last week & all the old grief came rocketing back in ways I couldn’t foresee

They suck. Doughboy memoirs are so much better reading

Feel better soon, diva!

This Is Just To Say

I have turned off
the AI features
that were in
the update

and which
you were probably
hoping
to monetize

Fuck you
they were stupid
so unnecessary
and so annoying

Damn, he is good

I’ve had the same editor since 1967. Many times he has said to me over the years or asked me, Why would you use a semicolon instead of a colon? And many times over the years I have said to him things like: I will never speak to you again. Forever. Goodbye. That is it. Thank you very much. And I leave. Then I read the piece and I think of his suggestions. I send him a telegram that says, OK, so you’re right. So what? Don’t ever mention this to me again. If you do, I will never speak to you again

Maya Angelou on the joys of being edited

(This also confirms what I’ve long suspected - that reading comprehension amongst field grades is absolute trash, made worse by over reliance on BLUF statements and PowerPoint)

Just took a reading comprehension test that said I scored higher than 92% of army war college attendees

Reader, I am hungover af and sleep deprived. This does not bode well for those we are selecting for higher command and responsibility.

Wait until they hear about cars

Opinion | The Warmongers Are Getting History All Wrong

Thucydides alert!

"What made war inevitable, in other words, was not merely the presence of rival great powers, but the fact that one of those powers was abusing the rules of the system that had enabled its rise to greatness in the first place."

Gift link

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/o...

I did and I’m sooooo pumped

An orange cat examine a TV that has a dog in a cage on it

Apparently this is a group activity now, according to Rosie

“What radicalized you as a kid?”

I dunno, probably a literary dog helping his community and using community organizing to fight off gross developers wanting to pave natural areas to put in a strip mall

Highly!

“Goddammit donut”

Ok but I’d watch a genealogy show that was also part wwe

Watching Wishbone episodes on YouTube and man, I forgot just how great this show was

And also, Joe’s mom can get it

CORRECT

Very weird to think that one stray British round on 19 April 1775 would’ve meant that I don’t exist

The links of time are bizarre

Been and done

Only just found out this year - really wild

251 years ago this morning just before dawn, 19yo William Diamond beat the assembly on his drum to call the Lexington Company of Militia out to the town green to form up as a British column had been sighted

Diamond would fight through the whole war & have a family

I’m his g-g-g-g-grandson

I’m afraid not, was in a newspaper and didn’t save it

Dust. Boredom. The stupid of it all

Great anecdote of one of MG Alex Hays’ staff officers (his division held part of the stone wall at Gburg) being invited to a post-WWI reunion of the 28th Division. He basically berated them for an hour for not fighting in a real war where you saw the person you shot

They gave him a standing ovation

National Guard regimental bands in this era are just *chef’s kiss*

Not only do you have the 15th NY Band, some of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, but tons of college musicians in bands who are obsessed with 1) learning new music and techniques and 2) using that to troll tf outta ppl