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A native of the Shenandoah Valley… through biographical sketches, anecdotes, and personal reflections, offering glimpses into the early to mid 1800s in both the Shenandoah Valley and Cumberland Valley
The longevity of the digital history we create
I’ve often given thought to how digital history can best endure the test of time. People create web pages, blog posts, Facebook posts, etc., but in which format is it as solid as text on print… in a book? Certainly, even in a book there are no guarantees (are you prepared to see your favorite, […]
Posted in: preserving digital history work, Uncategorized
On the trail of an ancestor’s tie with Sappington’s Carding and Fulling operation in Mills-Grove, Jefferson County
Despite all the times I’ve turned to online newspaper sites for content pertaining to ancestors, as new newspapers are added, there are always reasons to return. In fact, that’s what happened a couple weeks ago when perusing early newspapers for what is now the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. Not only was it a learning moment that […]
Posted in: Ancestral tidbits, Shenandoah Valley history
How Alexandria helped make the [Shenandoah] butter… fly
Throughout my work on “Civil War Memory” in the Shenandoah Valley, I’ve encountered a few folks who seem to think the Valley was an “island” unto itself… or limited only to trading/selling in close venues. No, I’m not drifting back to focusing on the Civil War in this blog, but that sort of thinking does […]
Posted in: Uncategorized
Mr. Guillou’s Dancing School in Winchester, Virginia (1811)
While it’s my goal to find and share glimpses into early 19th century life on the western side of the Blue Ridge, sometimes findings can be more revealing about a person who “popped in” only briefly, than about the community in which he/she made a brief appearance. Still, the guy did bring something interesting to […]
Henry Clay in Luray, and a nearly crazed “Mr.” Barbee
Scanning resources for first-hand accounts of life in the Shenandoah and Cumberland valleys sometimes results in discovering things one won’t see in a biography or local history. For example, I was well aware of the travels of Henry Clay through Hagerstown and Clear Spring, Maryland, but I’ve wondered if he made his way up the […]
Posted in: Uncategorized
Scratching the surface on early 19th century newspaper printers in the lower Shenandoah Valley
Digging into a local history, it often isn’t long before you realize that the history of a place doesn’t exist in a bubble. What I mean is, local history can be a bit of an ebb and flow with neighboring areas and beyond. With that in mind, consider my “encounter”, this past week, while exploring the Library of Virginia’s […]
Always looking for windows…
I open this blog post with… “I’m not making any promises.” So, let’s see where things lead… if I can get into the groove of regularly posting. I sincerely doubt the blog will get as ‘white hot” as it was in the early days before (and of) the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, and really, […]
… 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
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
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”
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
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
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?
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?
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
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
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…
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
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
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
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
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
… 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)
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
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)
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?
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
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
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)
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 […]
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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 
November 19, 2025
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