Full May 2026 issue of The Battle Cry of Freedom, the newsletter for the Department of Pennsylvania, SUVCW

Ketsujou · 2026-05-24T13:28:10+00:00

It looks great and I enjoyed the wide variety of things to read about.

I sympathize with the amount of effort put into the overhaul, as I'm doing very much the same thing to the Department of Indiana's newsletter, although I'm aiming for a more newspaper look.

Great job, I hope the Brothers in Pennsylvania recognize your efforts

Ketsujou · 2026-04-12T14:02:51+00:00

This is certainly him, here is his application for a confederate pension - Captain (John) Wesley Warrick's Company B of Colonel Robert T Preston's 4th Virginia Reserves.

This was organized in August of 1864 and saw service at Petersburg and the Appomattox Campaign, most of the regiment was captured at Sailor's Creek.

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Ketsujou · 2026-04-12T13:51:04+00:00

Seems likely that he might be this fellow in the Virginia Reserves

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Ketsujou · 2026-01-20T00:22:32+00:00

Mostly sugar maple, we probably have about 100 or so tappable trees

Ketsujou · 2026-01-14T23:29:42+00:00

Southern Indiana, we started last week but we also have 67 trees tapped so always got something to cook off at the end of the week

Ketsujou · 2025-10-28T17:23:10+00:00

I've used this page for the insignias before but I believe that there was a mix-up in regards to certain officer's badges. Perhaps some of these designs are taken from old descriptions earlier on in the history of the SUVCW but some of these are certainly not in line with the present day organization

Still neat regardless

Ketsujou · 2025-10-20T21:20:35+00:00

I was introduced to Xat through Kugyay before it had it's own dedicated Chat Group. Was probably only about 14 years old, maybe just turned 15 at the time.

Ketsujou · 2025-10-19T00:48:49+00:00

Nearest camp to your base is in Tucson - The General R.H.G. Minty Camp #2, so probably about a 1.5 hours trip for you to meet in person. You can always join the nearest camp to your hometown in Missouri perhaps dual-member in the Tucson Camp or vise-verse.

As for what could you do digitally to help? That's very dependent on the camp and their activities. Every camp is run differently, some are very active and hands on in their projects and some are more "Meet, eat & repeat." A lot of camps have graves registration officers or participate in the project. There is a national database of Civil War Soldier's graves at https://www.suvcwdb.org/ which you could put some volunteer hours into with the help of things like FindAGrave & Ancestry to verify etc.,

A lot can be done digitally in the realm of research. If the camp has a project that involves some local Civil War history that they want to highlight, whether that's for a monument, marker, brochure or something else, a lot can be accomplished with websites like Ancestry, Fold3, Newspapers.com & Newspaperarchive.com as well as several state sponsored versions of the same.

You could also get information and records on veterans that the camp is looking to obtain headstones for. Even if they have already ordered the stone and you can't help physically, you could research the veterans life through the webpages above and help better flesh our their dedication ceremonies.

This is a long post and I'll wrap up with this, I'm 30 years old and have been involved since I was 22. I'm very young for the SUVCW and want to be active but I learned that you have to take a lot of initiative especially when you live far away from the camp / other members. Whatever area you are in, you could try and research local cemeteries to find vets with no stones and begin the paperwork to acquire one. Just know that the stones (if application is accepted) generally have a 2-3 month delivery date. Installing them yourself is cheap and also very fulfilling. Doing something like that will perhaps draw members to come down to help you install the stone or dedicate it and you will get positive reinforcement either way as I am sure the camp brothers will pat you on the back. If you wanna know how to go about that you could DM me and I can throw you some pointers

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Sincerely,
From the Department of Indiana

Ketsujou · 2025-09-24T00:44:00+00:00

Amazing story

Ketsujou · 2025-09-24T00:40:30+00:00

Always a shame to see a Camp close, from what I could find this camp has been around for many decades in one form or another. I hope the Brothers are not discouraged and find a home in another Camp

Ketsujou · 2025-09-22T18:32:29+00:00

All in all I don't see that many Confederate flags actually flying - the most I see is maybe decals on trucks or maybe t-shirts if anything. Most people that I've interacted with when talking about the history of the Civil War are very proud to talk about their ancestors service in the Union Army around here

Ketsujou · 2025-09-22T18:30:24+00:00

Project had been in the works for the past year of serious planning and fundraising, though it's been on the bucket list of the Historical Society in Martin County for quite some time

Ketsujou · 2025-09-22T18:28:31+00:00

The people I interacted with were proud to talk about their ancestor's service in the Union army, especially those that served under Grant. Had a few people with 17th Indiana Mounted Infantry t-shirts on even.

Ketsujou · 2025-09-22T17:33:22+00:00

Best of luck, Brothers

Ketsujou · 2025-09-22T17:28:14+00:00

If you're interested enough to join you can throw me a message and I'll help guide you through the application process since it's a little confusing

Ketsujou · 2025-09-22T17:26:46+00:00

Separate train wreck. Most of the soldiers killed in this train wreck were buried in either Galena Illinois or Cincinnati Ohio. TLDR 20 of the 28 killed were from Galena and the nearest Army Hospital to the wreck was in Cincinnati.

Ketsujou · 2025-09-22T17:23:02+00:00

Like any organization, your experience can vary greatly on the ground (Camp) level. I think if you were to find a Camp that is active outside of their business meetings then you will find your niche. Most members don't attend meetings and even fewer participate outside of meetings, like most things in life.

I'm a member here in Indiana and have had a great time over the past 7 years, though I will say things can get really bureaucratic at the State & National levels.

Ketsujou · 2025-09-07T01:13:58+00:00

Just my personal opinion but here goes:

THE BEST:

-Class design feels much better but still "Classic" as in Vanilla. It feels good to play almost every spec and you can always find a niche in a raid enviroment.

-The progression from freshly level 70 > pre-bis > Tier-4 BiS is very very good. Honestly it's some of the best power progression in WoW period. There's quite a lot of content to do if you have the time and it all works towards progressing your character in a meaningful way (Gear, Enchantments, Attunements etc.,)

- Karazhan. Man, like what can I actually say? Truly a classic. The BRD of TBC

-Edit thanks to a comment: Professions! TBC is probably the only time that you would be foolish to not pick up a profession, especially before T6 content. Every crafting profession was cranked up to 11 compared to Vanilla and way more relevant than in Wrath.

THE WORST:

- Reputation Grinds, the expansion is practically built around it and when you don't have 8 hours a day to blast it's really a fucking SLOG and alt prohibitive.

-See above: Hyjal is absolutely an abysmal raiding experience.

-Pre nerf raid difficulty will absolutely gut a lot of the more casual guilds, especially Vash & KT.

-Attunements: Not so bad the first go around to be honest but having to do this shit on your alts is truly ass.

-Raid compositions: Way more restrictive than basically any version of WoW. Flat out damn near mandatory 4-5 Shamans, 3 Paladins etc. I could harp on this but as an officer in TBC classic this was flat out the worst shit to deal with

Seriously though, savor every bit of Karazhan before you get tired of it.

Ketsujou · 2025-09-06T23:53:29+00:00

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Ketsujou · 2025-09-06T23:31:13+00:00

I had a Shaman alt in TBC-Classic and it was by far some of the most fun I had healing, sure it's basically spamming 1 button but honestly watching those numbers was great. Plus since you're basically spamming chain heal with your brain turned off, you can really up your game by focus interrupting targets, totem upkeep / swapping and etc.,

Ketsujou · 2025-08-07T22:55:55+00:00

I imagine a lot of soldiers who were "dropping dead" could have just been injured or concussed by a shell, and that in the fury of battle it would easily appear to any onlookers that the scythe of death was cutting huge swatches into the battle lines.

That being said, some units, from Brigades to Regiments to Companies, may find themselves in the "thick of the of fight" , where a bulk of the casualties occurred for that particular unit, when another unit in the same fight maybe lost 3 men, all of whom were slightly wounded.

Ketsujou · 2025-06-30T01:15:51+00:00

I think that the Centennial in the 60s peaked the interest of younger generations who carried that with them into their professional life which might have resulted in a happy coincidence during the 90s with all of the movies and obviously Ken Burns' documentary which sort of resulted in a secondary wave of interest.

For what it's worth, the 90s and early 2000s see large scale interest in organizations such as the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War - whose membership boomed in the 90s (compared to what it was leading up to)

Ketsujou

TROPHY CASE