The Magical History Tour

From time to time, I dip into my other hobby here, which is medieval recreation. The following article is one that I wrote for our local Society for Creative Anachronism group. In the High Middle Ages in Europe, a knight would often travel many places to take part in tournaments held to celebrate festivals, the…

This is an excellent video by “Timeline” that gives a good explanation of why the War of 1812 happened and underlines why the war itself is incredibly useless.

To help bring you into the new year, here are some quotes from the past to help you start your year. John Adams was known for his beliefs on free thought and right action. He was happy to share this belief with others, whether they wanted it, or not. “Human nature itself is evermore an…

The Union Army of the Cumberland had been in Tennessee, near Nashville. Major General William Rosencrans was the commander and kept his army at Nashville to resupply and await orders from Washington. At the end of December 1862, those orders came, The Army of the Cumberland was again to move on General Braxton Bragg and…

In June of 1863, Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan and his group of Cavalrymen began an 1,100-mile raid that would bring Confederate troops within 40 miles of Pittsburgh. Morgan’s Raid was meant to coincide with the Confederate Vicksburg and Gettysburg campaigns. Morgan and his 2,460 handpicked cavalrymen rode out from Sparta, Tennessee through Kentucky where…

Alexander Kelly was born in Conemaugh, Pennsylvania in 1840 to a free black family, when his parents passed, Kelly was just 10 years old. He and his siblings were sent to live with their aunt and uncle, who lived along the Conemaugh River in a small African-American community, most of whom worked in the coal…

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to support my ability to travel to history events and historic sites. I hope you will consider supporting my blog on Patreon. The link is below. Magical History Tour Patreon

When you read about the American Revolution, you likely see the contributions of the Continental Congress, the Sons of Liberty or General George Washington. While there were many men who contributed to the patriot cause, the stories of the women who helped win the revolution are rarely told. Cokie Roberts, noted historian and journalist for…

(Note: In this article I refer to the states as colonies for a couple reasons. First, although there was a Continental Congress, the individual colonies for the most part saw themselves as British subjects and fell under the representation of the colonial governments. Second, the individual colonies had not established what would happen once the…

In an attempt to lay claim to the Ohio Country, the French had created alliances and established forts throughout what is now Western Pennsylvania and Western New York. The British Crown and its representatives in the American colonies did not like this incursion on the territory that they believed was rightly British. On December 12th,…