Well, we’re taking a break from Grim Reaper and going back to Carl Buckman. I am going to be putting out two chapters every few days. Book 4 is relatively short, fourteen chapters, so it should be up in two or three weeks.
There are some formatting errors in 47 and 48. I am checking with the Webmaster to fix this, and if necessary will repost the chapters with fixes.
Carl is now officially in the Army, which I never was, so I had to find myself some expert editing. Into the breach stepped an airborne trained helo pilot with experience around the time when Carl was supposed to be serving. Another one of my editors happened to be an artillery officer from the 82nd Airborne. These guys were Godsends! They did a great job editing and fixing some of my errors. Some were relatively minor, some were considerably larger, all would have detracted from the story. This has been fascinating in so many ways, and I have really learned a lot about airborne life that I would have never gotten elsewhere. I think I was able to fix everything, but any errors are mine and mine alone!
On a personal note, much of my family history is similar to Carl’s. I was talking to my brother over Thanksgiving (who is nowhere near as nutty as Hamilton) and he is a bit of a family historian and a genius. “Did anybody in our family own slaves?” The answer surprised me to a certain extent. Yes! Between 1750 (when we first arrived in America) and 1846, there were eight wills probated and six enslaved individuals were mentioned as property. That suggests to me that some of these individuals were passed down through more than one generation. They were all house slaves, as opposed to field slaves; as Carl mentioned, north central Maryland is not suitable for the big cash crops that used field slaves. I’m not saying this was a good thing. I consider slavery detestable. On the other hand, I am not here to pass judgment on my ancestors two centuries ago.
Enjoy!