- About me
- Cenantua – What and why?
- Cenantua’s pages (bio sketches & so on)
- Citing… this site
As a Southerner and native of the Shenandoah Valley, I offer reflections on the Civil War-era South… and sometimes a little more. But… expect the unexpected
… but, it was just four years…
There were more than a couple of times that I brought this up in the course of the blog. The American Civil War was only four years long. Sure, there are a string of events (many years) that are fascinating, both before and after the war, which led to, or were because of the war. […]
Posted in: Uncategorized
Let the spiritS MOVE you… with a side of irony
December 7, 2021
by The Wild Pretanī
It’s been a long time (2018) since I last blogged here (I have occasionally blogged elsewhere, but that’s another story, and related to another field that has been keeping my attention for the last 3 or 4 years), and I’ll not go into all the reasons as to why, but one big one always seems […]
The past can be “experienced” and Townsend offers an excellent window
October 12, 2018
by The Wild Pretanī
Reading about history can be very enjoyable, and it’s essential for anyone seeking a core understanding of the past. Yet, there can be more. For a number of the book-learned practitioners of history, there’s a “sensory need” which books can’t fulfill, and it’s those sensory experiences that bring another dynamic to an understanding of the […]
Posted in: Uncategorized
Knowing history from “spin”
October 11, 2018
by The Wild Pretanī
In the age of so much “fake news”, folks should also be mindful of, well… “fake history”. I’m not just talking about history that’s factually incorrect, although there are certainly memes-aplenty with a great many incorrect quotes and/or quotes taken out of context. Readers should also be conscious of the rhetoric behind presented history and/or […]
Posted in: Uncategorized
When ancestral land beckons you to return
October 10, 2018
by The Wild Pretanī
It’s been a couple of years since I made the trek into the backcountry of the Shenandoah National Park… back to Nicholson Hollow, in Madison County, Virginia.. and I think it’s time to return again. Actually, I meant (back then) to write a blog post about my hike, but never got around to it. Hopefully, […]
Posted in: Uncategorized
Gilbert Purdy recalls his sailing days before the Civil War
September 26, 2018
by The Wild Pretanī
As I mentioned in the last post, I focus often on the Shenandoah Valley, but (and this is no mystery to those who used to read this blog when I was more actively blogging) I also have historical interests in other areas as well. One of those “other areas” is the early history of American […]
Posted in: Uncategorized
What percentage of history has actually been covered?
August 30, 2018
by The Wild Pretanī
Fellow blogger Michael Hardy posted something on his Facebook page, today, regarding the percentage of history that has actually been covered in published works, and, really, the greater portion which has not been covered. While my reply went off on a bit of a tangent, I agree that we’ve only scraped the surface (and, as […]
Posted in: Uncategorized
Back to blogging?
August 23, 2018
by The Wild Pretanī
It might be that returning to blogging, after so long, may be just as difficult as getting that first blog post up and running… or at least it feels like it. Between time constraits, work, commuting, projects at home, and a plethora of other things going on, returning to blogging hasn’t been high on the […]
Posted in: Uncategorized
Deciphering the rhetoric (and more) of the dead
March 11, 2017
by The Wild Pretanī
In the course of dreaming, have you ever had an experience in which you attempt to vocalize something and are unable to make the sounds your brain intends? In dreaming, there’s that weird divide between our subconscious and conscious that, I guess in some shallow stage of sleep, we sometimes attempt to broach. While most of […]
Posted in: Research
Sheridan, Rienzi, and late 19th century marketing
March 4, 2017
by The Wild Pretanī
It’s not often that I can blend a little of the history of the Shenandoah Valley with the Cumberland Valley, but… Among the different types of beer bottled and sold by one of my great-great grand uncles (among other beer and soda bottling ventures, James Draden Moore became a distributor for Rochester Brewing Co.), in […]
Passion for history is good, but…
March 1, 2017
by The Wild Pretanī
While I haven’t taken my foundations in rhetoric course yet (it’s on the horizon… Fall 2017), I think I’ve got a good handle on how the three modes of persuasion in rhetoric play out in the writings of some people (and I’m especially interested in how some contemporary historians use rhetoric… letting their passions get […]
Looking back at Loudoun Heights
January 8, 2017
by The Wild Pretanī
Once again, there’s been a dry spell on this blog. Between work, my PhD work, and frequent travels to visit a daughter at VMI, I found little time to post anything after my last post in October. Still, that didn’t mean ideas stopped floating about in my head about various topics. I just didn’t have […]
Posted in: American Civil War
The horrors of war, the media, and our detachment
October 28, 2016
by The Wild Pretanī
I follow a Facebook page called We Are the Mighty (a page geared toward veterans and military members) and this morning, an article appeared there which gave me reason to pause a little longer than normal. Titled “24 photos that show the honor and loyalty of the Marine Corps” (I would provide the link but it keeps […]
Posted in: The First World War, Visualizing History
Shenandoah Valley men on the Mexican border
October 25, 2016
by The Wild Pretanī
This is outside my normal “field of operations”, but… putting my stories of the antebellum Shenandoah, and news reports of those buried alive in the same period, on the side for today… I want to share a reminder that we’re just about to enter the WWI Centennial (the US version… Europe has been at it a while, already). Of […]
A new “area” Civil War blog
October 20, 2016
by The Wild Pretanī
It’s been a long time since I’ve acknowledged a new Civil War blog on the scene, but, in that this new one also focuses on a portion of the area which holds my interest… it merits a shout-out. So, for those who are interested in western Maryland… and that general area, thereabouts, in the Civil […]
The Richmond Dispatch’s first mention of John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry
October 16, 2016
by The Wild Pretanī
… didn’t appear until October 18, 1859… two days after the raid was initiated. For those who know the story, it’s also interesting to read the exaggerated numbers involved in the raid, and the reference to a “Captain Anderson” instead of John Brown.
Premature Burials mentioned in Richmond newspapers (1849- July, 1854)
October 12, 2016
by The Wild Pretanī
In continuing to recognize Poe on the 167th anniversary of his death… and recognizing what may have been one of his greatest fears… I’ve combed through some of the antebellum newspapers of Richmond, Virginia, using the online source, Chronicling America, (I’ll be using my other online resources for some additional newspapers of interest) and, using the phrases “premature burial” and “buried alive”, I […]
Posted in: Antebellum Virginia
Key phrase… “buried alive”, in 19th century newspapers
October 4, 2016
by The Wild Pretanī
This week marks the 167th anniversary of the strange events leading up to the death of Edgar Allan Poe, and as Poe focused so often on people being buried alive, it seems fitting that I take a little time to examine what the newspapers reveal. Poe’s “The Premature Burial”, by the way, was published in […]
The Haunted House that wasn’t – Richmond Dispatch staff and their own “In Search Of” (1852)
October 4, 2016
by The Wild Pretanī
Why not? It’s October, after all… I’m not quite sure if both James A. Corwardin (Proprietor of the Daily Dispatch) and Hugh R. Pleasants (Editor) took part, but, in September 1852, some of the staff (apparently) of the Daily Dispatch decided to visit a haunted house in Richmond, and report their findings (in the issue […]
Who were Orrstown, Pennsylvania’s Copperheads?
September 28, 2016
by The Wild Pretanī
Though I haven’t mentioned it, this past summer my wife purchased a “retreat” in central Pennsylvania. So, when I’m not otherwise overwhelmed keeping up with everything else going on, I’m enjoying the advantages of being in TWO fine valleys… the Shenandoah, in Virginia, and the Cumberland, in Pennsylvania. Whether by accident or not, the exact location […]
Posted in: Civil War Memory - General, Cumberland Valley history
“a runaway… a negro man who calls himself PHIL”, OTD, 1814
September 28, 2016
by The Wild Pretanī
From the front page of the Sept. 28, 1814 edition of the Maryland Herald and Hagers-town Weekly Advertiser, we have a listing announcing the runaway of a slave (out of the lower Shenandoah Valley) owned by Ferdinand (aka Ferdinando) Fairfax: While this may just appear to be yet another listing for another runaway slave, give it […]
On Thomas Nast’s 176th Birthday
September 27, 2016
by The Wild Pretanī
It’s his art and the way he could say so much in it, with so few words. That’s why I take time to remember Thomas Nast on his 176th birthday… and the fact that Facebook reminded me that, for whatever reason that compelled me at the time, I paid tribute to him on his birthday, back in […]
Pine Grove Furnace – the Ironmaster’s Mansion (Gardners, Pa)
September 25, 2016
by The Wild Pretanī
Yesterday afternoon, I had a chance for a quick dash through part of the countryside of central Pennsylvania. Having just enough time, I took a short detour toward Pine Grove Furnace. When I saw a sign for the Ironmaster’s Mansion, I wondered… could this be the Ege family home? Even if so, why would I […]
Discussing secession, OTD, 1851
September 23, 2016
by The Wild Pretanī
The following clip comes from the Spirit of Jefferson (Charles Town, VA), from 165 years ago, today. Of course, reading through this, there are some lines that seem to see a decade ahead. I was particularly interested in the remarks near the end… Our blood ran cold as he described an army devastating this Valley… […]
“Spirit Rappings” in Port Republic
September 20, 2016
by The Wild Pretanī
Not an OTD piece, today, but rather one which just caught my eye when looking for an OTD piece. While some might think it’s just a little early for ghost stories, this piece from the Jan. 21, 1854 issue of the Richmond Dispatch is still entertaining. Clearly, the author had a little fun, tying what was […]
A decade of Southern Unionist studies
September 19, 2016
by The Wild Pretanī
After receiving a comment last night on a recent post, and while driving into work this morning, I realized that, for over a decade, I’ve been involved in the study of Southern Unionists in the Shenandoah Valley. It was ten years ago this fall when I started writing my thesis on Southern Unionism and disaffected […]
Posted in: "Personal" CW memory, American Civil War, Ancestral tidbits, Antebellum culture of the Shenandoah Valley, Antebellum Virginia, Civil War Memory - General, historical interpretation, historical memory, Page County Confederates, Shenandoah Valley history, Shenandoah Valley in the Civil War, Southern Unionism, Southern Unionists Chronicles, Virginia in the Civil War
Virginia’s old SCV license plate – an observation
September 15, 2016
by The Wild Pretanī
I saw this article, and taking the time to actually read it… and re-read it… I’m actually able to hear both sides to this argument. For one, the plate is no longer a legal plate in the Commonwealth of Virginia. So, under the law, being no longer legal, I understand the basic thought behind why […]
“I’ve got through crying long ago” – a refugee from the Shenandoah
September 13, 2016
by The Wild Pretanī
A few months ago, I came across an old sketch on Ebay showing a woman and her children above the title “Flight from the Shenandoah Valley”. Wanting to know the source, I found it in the Pictorial Book of Anecdotes and Incidents of the War of the Rebellion, by Richard Miller Devens (1824-1900). While there […]
“Perfidious Wretch!” – The developing story of Mr. Dorsey horsewhipping Dr. Gordon, OTD, 1840
September 10, 2016
by The Wild Pretanī
I came across a number of articles in the Virginia Free Press pertaining to an altercation between one A.G. Gordon and Dr. H. Dorsey, both… I think… were from Charles Town, (West) Va. There’s a lot going on in the exchanges I’ve found in the various clippings (spanning about four issues, so far), so, I’ll […]
Statue of Washington returns to VMI (150 years ago, today)
September 10, 2016
by The Wild Pretanī
Dedicated on the grounds of the Virginia Military Institute, on July 3, 1856, William James Hubbard’s copy of Jean Antoine Houdon’s Washington had, for eight years, been a point of inspiration to cadets of the Institute, and, to the residents of Lexington, a proud reminder of the “Father of the Country”. Therefore, when returned to the grounds […]
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by Robert H. Moore, II
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Southern Unionists Chronicles
- 34th Massachusetts POWs and Harrisonburg Unionists
- Letter from Botts, laying “bare the tyranny of Jeff. Davis”, November 21, 1863
- Hensley-Lamb (Rockingham & Page County) refugees, documented in Gettysburg newspaper
- In the case of Mr. Nicholas Breeden, Rockingham County, Virginia
- When a Confederate soldier came-a-courtin’ a Southern Unionist’s daughter
- Rebecca Wright: Winchester Unionist and Sheridan’s “Little Quaker Girl”
- “The reign of terror in Loudoun, Va.”
- Looking for photos of Galvanized Yankees
- Reuben Kite’s story
- New markers in Waterford, Va. highlight Southern Unionism there
Cenantua's Blog 
January 18, 2022
by The Wild Pretanī
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