On the anniversary of his death I’ll say it again: In a world of John C. Calhouns, be a Thaddeus Stevens.

On World Ranger Day we recognize those who protect and interpret our natural, historical, and cultural resources around the globe for this and future generations. It’s been an honor to serve among so many talented and passionate colleagues and friends; I hope we get to do so for many years to come.

Today there are no markers, no memorials, no mentions of the unspeakable violence that took place near this intersection where a newly deputized police attacked Black US Army veterans and their allies in the name of white supremacy.

On July 30, 1866 white police officers and ex-Confederates murdered at least 34 Black freedmen in New Orleans as they peacefully assembled in support of the Louisiana Constitutional Convention. www.nps.gov/articles/000...

The world is on fire, a baby tyrant is in office, and lettuce is giving us the shits… but the spirit of Mr. Rogers is still alive and well.

A view of Pittsburgh from Coal Hill. Mark Twain had a similar perspective in 1884, noting “we sauntered about the mount, and looked down on the lake of fire and flame. It looked like a miniature hell with the lid off.“

The feeling of enrolling for my final semester at @gettysburgcollege.bsky.social & @gliamericanhistory.bsky.social. A master’s thesis is loading…

Corporal Harry Curry, who guarded the colors of the 155th Pennsylvania Infantry as his regiment repelled Confederate attacks against Little Round Top on July 2, 1863. He returned home to Pittsburgh after the Civil War, where he became a business partner of Andrew Carnegie.

When the park is running low on brochures and we’re waiting on additional funding…

As we continuously face adversity and opposition to sharing a complete national history, on this 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding, I’m continuously encouraged by voices of the past.

Happy 250th 🫡

Me being designated acting supervisor on July 4 weekend:

For the first time, likely since the dedication of his regiment’s monument, Lt. Isaac Sowers’s likeness returns to the battlefield of Gettysburg, where the 9th Pennsylvania Reserves huddled near a stone wall between July 2-3, 1863.

Though the guns of Gettysburg fell silent long ago, the commemorative spirit, words, and deeds of those who struggled here serve as reminders that we need to continue the fight for a more perfect union just 250 years after its establishment.

It’s been a long day, and an especially long year, but connecting with a landscape such as this, and at such an important time, is a stark reminder that there is much work left to be done.

Just casually videobombing Pennsylvania Cable Network’s annual Gettysburg Battlefield Walk program.

*claps in Thaddeus Stevens*

I know swearing in the research room is frowned upon, but it’s not every day you get to handle a 163-year-old document signed by Abe Lincoln.

While this symbol of white supremacy was eventually taken down in July 2015, a Confederate monument, dedicated in 1879, still stands tall in front of the state house today - a reminder of the work yet to be done. 4/4

After she reached the ground Newsome was quickly arrested by Columbia City Police who returned the flag to the pole, where it had lived since 2000. The flag previously had been hung prominently above the home of the South Carolina state government since the Jim Crow Era. 2/4

On June 27, 2015, 10 days after a white supremacist murdered 9 Black members of Charleston’s Mother Emanuel AME Church, Bree Newsome scaled a flagpole in front of the South Carolina State House and removed a Confederate flag that had hung on the grounds since 1961. 🧵 1/4

I can retire now.

Smalls received a sizable monetary reward for turning over Confederate property to United States troops, with which he purchased his former enslaver’s house in Beaufort, South Carolina; the same home Smalls knew as a slave, and later as a sitting US Congressman.

Robert Smalls and 15 enslaved people emancipated themselves against impossible odds on May 12, 1862, escaping on a confiscated Confederate vessel under the cover of darkness in Charleston Harbor. On May 13 they lived their first day as freed people.

“I had been an abolitionist too long, and had known and loved John Brown too well, not to feel a thrill of joy at last on finding myself in the position where he only wished to be.” -Colonel Thomas W. Higginson, who died on the 111th anniversary of his friend’s birthday

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” -Mark Twain, 1869

That’s a wrap on Spring 2026. My final full semester of the Gettysburg College/Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Master’s Program has come to an end, and a beer is in order. With my thesis slated for the autumn, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

The site of the 1866 Memphis Massacre is marked today by a simple plaque, situated just a block away from the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated little over 100 years later. 3/3

No perpetrators of the massacre were brought to justice for their crimes, but their acts garnered support amongst Radical Republicans in Congress for the passage of the 14th Amendment, granting citizenship and equal protection under the law to Black Americans. 2/3

Between May 1-3, 1866 a mob of white supremacists, led by local police, attacked the Black community surrounding Fort Pickering in Memphis, Tennessee. An estimated 46 Black residents were murdered while 4 churches, 12 schools, and 91 homes had been burned. 🧵 1/3