Books for My Class Arrived

The mail was kind to me today.  I got my copy of Custer Victorious.  This book will be the basis for my talk on the first years of Custer's career. 

He had just graduated from West Point when the Civil War began.  Custer was a genius or very lucky in the Civil War.  He was in tens of battles and survived without a serious injury'

Gregory J. W. Urwin, the author of this book, says that he has come to know the role politics played in the careers of officers in the Army of the Potomac. 

Urwin praises The Union Cavalry in the Civil War by Stephen Z, Starr as the seminal book on the topic.  Starr said:

Next to Sheridan in credit for the accomplishments of the [Federal ] cavalry in the Appomattox Campaign stood Geroge Custer.


I am looking forward to reading Custer Victorious.

Designing a Class on Gen. Custer in the Civil War

Jo Brownlie, the coordinator for the Osher Life Long Learning classes called me today about a class for that program at SVSU in the fall. I was very pleased to hear from her and to have the opportunity to develop this course. I also thought about a course on the St. Louis World's Fair as a follow-up on the Columbian Exposition, but Custer won this battle.

I plan to put a few hundred hours into this project. It's necessary to spend that much time in preparation. At this point, I don't have a structure or a theme I want to develop so I will be doing some survey reading on Custer in the Civil War.

I'll take notes in my OneNote application and work the course up from there. It will be a blast.