Josiah Marshall
Favill

Image of unknown
man used for John
Beauchamp Jones.

Image of unknown
woman used for
“refugee” Judith
White McQuire.

Joseph Howland

Horatio Nelson Taft

William Howard Russell

Seven of the writers that I am including at Daily Observations from The Civil War wrote diary entries or letters on July 21, 1861 that related to the battle near Manassas Junction and/or the aftermath.  The following are excerpts from their writings of the day:

Josiah Marshall Favill – “In the order prescribed by the regulations, for a force feeling the enemy preparatory to an attack, we marched forward, passing over the open field and into a piece of full grown timber, apparently the slope of a considerable hill. As we slowly ascended the rising ground, suddenly a loud screeching noise overhead sent more than half the regiment pell mell the other side of a fence that ran along the road side. Here we crouched down flat on our bellies, our hearts in our mouths..,” – Diary of a Young Officer.

John Beauchamp Jones – “The President left the city this morning for Manassas, and we look for a battle immediately. I have always thought he would avail himself of his prerogative as commander-in-chief, and direct in person the most important operations in the field; and, indeed, I have always supposed he was selected to be the Chief of the Confederacy, mainly with a view to this object, as it was generally believed…” – A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary at the Confederate States Capital.

Judith White McQuire – “We were at church this morning and heard Bishop Meade, on the subject of “Praise.” He and his whole congregation greatly excited. Perhaps there was no one present who had not some near relative at Manassas…” Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War.

Joseph Howland – “On The Battle-Field Near Bull Run… Our brigade is making a demonstration in the face of the enemy and a fight is going on on the right of the line five or six miles off.” – Letters of a Family During the War for the Union.

Horatio Nelson Taft – “This has been the most exciting day yet. We have heard the guns all day from the battle which has been raging at or near Mannasses Junction. There is no news that can be relied on public tonight, only that a terrible fight has been going on all day.” – Diary of a Clerk in the U.S. Patent Office.

William Howard Russell – “The calmness and silence of the streets of Washington this lovely morning suggested thoughts of the very different scenes which, in all probability, were taking place at a few miles’ distance. One could fancy the hum and stir round the Federal bivouacs, as the troops woke up and were formed into column of march towards the enemy.” – My Diary North and South.

Olbrich Botanical Gardens, Madison, Wisconsin, September 22, 2008, unidentified blossom.

Olbrich Botanical Gardens is located in Madison, Wisconsin. Named for its founder, Michael Olbrich, the gardens are owned and operated jointly by the City of Madison Parks and the non-profit Olbrich Botanical Society. The gardens were officially established in 1952.

Noteworthy additions to the gardens were the Bolz Conservatory in 1991 and a Thai pavilion or sala, a gift to the University of Wisconsin–Madison from the Thai Chapter of the Wisconsin Alumni Association and the government of Thailand through its king, Bhumibol Adulyadej. Opened in 2002, it is one of only four sala outside of Thailand and one of two in the United States (the other is located in Hawaii). – Wikipedia

Olbrick Botanical Gardens:

• Official website
• Wikipedia
• Facebook

Madison, Wisconsin:

• City of Madison official website
• Greater Madison Convention & Visitors Bureau
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel

Related Posts:

• Farmer’s Market
• 2007 Travel Journal — Madison, Wisconsin, June 10th
• Rainy Market Day
• Downtown Madison
• A capitol market
• Peppers at the Market
• Fine day at the market
• Color on a rainy day in Madison
• Music at the Farmers’ Market
• Madison, Wisconsin Farmer’s Market – A New Photo Gallery
• A Trip to the Zoo, June 11th–2007 Travel Journal

Dane County Farmer’s Market Photo Gallery

Late yesterday afternoon, while I was at work in the simulator, Karen texted that our over 20 year old air conditioner (heat pump) had stopped working.

We ended up spending the night in the motorhome as the house was warmer than we like for sleeping.  I didn’t get off until almost 10 P.M. and Karen had the motorhome all set up when I got home, except for connecting the water.  The plumbing was still “winterized” with no water in any of the supply lines and I wanted to be home when the lines were filled.

With the current weather, it’s not a good time to be without cooling

The country is in the grips of a pretty widespread heat wave.  The orange on the map is a heat advisory, which is what we are in – “dangerous heat stress conditions…” during the afternoon and early evening hours.  The purple area is a excessive heat warning. “A prolong period of dangerously hot temperatures will occur.  The combination of hot temperatures and high humidity will create a dangerous situation in which heat illnesses are likely.”

To the east, Tropical Storm Bret is expected to stay out to sea and will provide no relief of any kind for the heat.

Fortunately, the service tech from the heating and air company showed up about 9 A.M. The problem was a fan motor and they had a replacement on the truck.  Replacing it and checking the refrigerant pressure took less than a half hour.  Now the house is cool and the air conditioner is cycling on and off periodically.

No relief in the near term:

I guess we’re getting the flip side of our colder than normal winter.  It certainly gives one an appreciation for air conditioned living and working spaces.

While this is a hotter than normal summer, it is not without precedent.  The summer that we moved here, 1980, was much worse.  Many of the rural volunteer fire departments in the area were created as a result of the widespread wild fires that year.  The hot dry conditions lasted from June into early October, from what I remember.

We did have a break last week.  On Tuesday, we got about 3 inches of rain in downpour that lasted an hour.  Then, during the night, we had another inch and a quarter for a total of about 4.25 inches (10.8 cm).  Then the temperature stayed under a hundred through yesterday.

I guess I can’t complain too much.  When I was a teen, I lived in southeast Texas the summer of 1965 and from June 1967 to December 1971.  That was 6 summers in a hot and humid part of the U.S. – and we did not have air conditioning.

These days, though, we’re not acclimatized to the heat and tend to hide from it – as much as we can.

1. Crimes against butter – people imprison for selling margarine. (U.S. National Archives)
2. Stuxnet: Anatomy of a Computer Virus – this is the virus that shutdown the Iranian nuclear fuel enrichment centrifuges.
3. Göbekli Tepe – the oldest known stone human-made community and place of worship yet discovered.
4. Chihuly – fantastic glass art.
5. Tittle – a small distinguishing mark, such as the dot over a lowercase i or j.
6. Photopic Sky Survey – Fully interactive map of the night sky composed of 37000 pictures stitched together by one man.
7. Do nothing for 2 minutes.
8. Crossword Clue Solver
9. Portrait of America – Mobile free photo booth in an old VW van traveling cross country, capturing pictures of people.
10. Palouse Falls – an upper falls of ~20 feet (6.1m)  and a lower falls od ~180 feet (55 m ). (Wikipedia)
11. Code Talkers – American Indian heroes of World War II (National Museum of American Indians).
12. Butterflies and Moths of North America – collecting and sharing data about Lepidoptera.
13. Captured: The Ruins of Detroit – French photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre set out to document the decline of an American city.
14. J.K. Rowling Official Site
15. Reflections

Starved Rock State Park, Illinois

On our way to Wisconsin in 2008 to visit our daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids, we stayed a couple of nights at Starved Rock State Park, one of the most popular state parks in Illinois.

While there, I wrote: “Yesterday, we drove to Starved Rock State Park in north central Illinois.  It seems to be very large.  We’ll be exploring it some tomorrow when the weather will be better.  From there, we’ll be going into Wisconsin on Wednesday. (Rainin’ in Peoria…, and other news from the road!)

While at Starved Rock, we did get in some hiking and exploring.

Starved Rock State Park website.

Did a little bit of experimenting today with time lapse photography.  This short video was shot off our front deck this afternoon.  It actually consists of 500 photos.  The camera was on a tripod and programmed to take one photo every 5 seconds.  In Windows Live Movie Maker, I set the duration for each photo to .05 seconds.  The audio is from YouTube audio swap, which has a wide variety of audio that has been made available to apply to uploaded videos.

The weather today was atrocious.  I know that I said I’d much rather have the heat and humidity than the storms we were getting a couple of months ago, but this is more than I asked for.  Today was 101.9° on our porch.  Down in town it was 105° – we’re always cooler up here in the warmer months.

If I wasn’t working this contracts we’d be heading to cooler climate – Colorado, Wyoming, somewhere cooler than here.

While it was pretty hot last weekend, we did get to see quite a bit. We drove a good percentage of the coast from near the Mississippi state line almost to Pensacola Florida – including taking the ferry from Dauphin Island, Alabama.

This may become a regular feature – or maybe not.

1. T.G.I. Friday’s
2. Grizzly kills man at Yellowstone National Park, first fatal mauling since 1986
3. honey badger – The honey badger (Mellivora capensis), also known as the ratel, is a monotypic species of mustelid native to Africa, the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent. (wikipedia)
4. In some cultures, Friday is considered unlucky. (Wikipedia)
5. Engineered from the finest genes, and trained to be a secret courier in a future world, Friday operates over a near-future Earth, where chaos reigns.
6. Hogweed – Heracleum Mantegazzianum — a plant more commonly known as the giant hogweed and native to Central Asia — is spreading fast in several states, and experts are urging some residents to beware. The tall plant with large, attractive flowers the size of umbrellas contains sap that causes blisters, burns, even blindness.
7. Kidnap survivor Elizabeth Smart joins ABC News as commentator.
8. Solar System Scope – Interactive 3D model of the solar system – interesting, but too busy with ads.
9. Katrina killed Six Flags New Orleans – Wikipedia
10. Your Paintings – a BBC website which aims to show the entire UK national collection of oil paintings, the stories behind the paintings, and where to see them for real. It is made up of paintings from thousands of museums and other public institutions around the country.

11. The Mountain from TSO Photography on Vimeo.