'Civil War News'

Is Historic Site

I want to thank everyone who came out, on a below zero night, to attend my talk at the Tunbridge library last week. Most especially I want to thank Kay Jorgensen for her generous introduction and her efforts to make the night possible.

Kay noted that I am now researching a book on Civil War sites in Vermont, and that at least two in Tunbridge will be included—the homesites of Wilbur Fisk, the letter-writer and correspondent, and Franklin Aretas Haskell, a hero of Gettysburg who wrote the best of all eyewitness accounts of the battle’s third day.

What I forgot to mention is that not only will the Tunbridge Civil War monument also be included, but also a modern site. That will be the offices of Civil War News, published by Kay and Pete Jorgensen on a hilltop north of the village.

Quite simply, the battlefield preservation effort of recent years that has saved thousands of acres of hallowed ground would not have been possible without Civil War News. The Jorgensens’ contribution to that effort has been monumental and has earned them a special place in the book that I hope to bring out as the Civil War’s 150^th anniversary begins in 2011.

Let me also note here that I was sad to miss the 2006 Tunbridge Fair, which would have been my 40^th consecutive World’s Fair. But I was asked to speak at the dedication of the Vermont Monument on the Wilderness Battlefield in Virginia, and that had to take precedence, though my heart was, all the while, in Tunbridge.

Howard Coffin

Montpelier