Late last year I had a dream that I found the grave of Captain Thomas Feenhagen, my great-great-great-grandfather. Feenhagen, the father of my my great-great-grandmother Susan and grandfather of my great-grandfather Allyn Gardner, was a sea captain. He commanded a merchant ship, the bark Seneca, in the 1850s and 1860s. From what little I’ve beenContinue reading “Exploring Mt. Carmel Cemetery”
Tag Archives: War-of-1812
A Vacation Day in the District
Thursday I took a vacation day. I went to Washington, DC for the day. I hadn’t been in the District since March for Shamrock Fest (though I had been to a baseball game in Bethesda at the beginning of August), and I hadn’t made it to a Nationals game yet this season, and I’d beenContinue reading “A Vacation Day in the District”
Francis Scott Key and the War of 1812: Diane Carey’s novel Banners
Over the past few days, I read Diane Carey’s Banners, a novel about the War of 1812, published last year by Koehlerbooks, presumably to commemorate the 200th-anniversary of the attack on Fort McHenry and the writing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Last night I finished the book. Carey was a prolific Star Trek novelist, publishing twoContinue reading “Francis Scott Key and the War of 1812: Diane Carey’s novel Banners”
First Invasion: The War of 1812
The History Channel showed tonight a documentary entitled First Invasion: The War of 1812. Being something of an enthusiast on the subject of America’s forgotten war, I tuned in, curious how they would distill the war, its causes and its effects, into two hours. I needn’t have bothered. The cause of the war? Impressment. WhatContinue reading “First Invasion: The War of 1812”