From The Lowcountry — February 2017

By Jack Melton · Originally published February 2017 · p. 2

We are pleased to announce Lawrence E. Babits, Ph.D. as the new Editor of Civil War News.

Larry Babits Larry Babits has considerable experience in military and maritime archaeology. After earning degrees at the University of Maryland (BA, MA) and Brown University (Ph.D.), he taught at Washington and Lee University, Armstrong State College, and East Carolina University. He retired as Director, Program in Maritime Studies, East Carolina University in 2012. Babits has been a military reenactor since 1961 with “service” as a sailor or infantryman in periods as diverse as 1585 and the Vietnam War, but primarily as a “rear rank private” in the Revolutionary and Civil War First Maryland Regiment. He has shot competitively with crossbows, matchlocks, flintlocks, percussion and cartridge weapons. He also served as a crewman on the U.S. Brig Niagara from 1996 to 2004. From June 17, 1963 until June 16, 1966, Babits served in the U.S. Army’s 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry (Gimlets) during a tour of duty in Munich and Berlin. After completing service as a Sergeant E-5, he went “on the road,” traveling between England and Afghanistan on the local economy. He was the McCann-Taggert Lecturer for the American Institute of Archaeology in 1995 and was named a George Washington Distinguished Professor of History, North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati (2000) and Fellow, Company of Military Historians (2007). His publications include over 100 book reviews, papers, and the reports, “Fort Dobbs on the Carolina Frontier” and “Archaeological Investigations at Causton’s Bluff, Chatham County, and Georgia.” His books include “Long, obstinate and Bloody” The Battle of Guilford Courthouse (coauthored with Joshua Howard), Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009; Fields of Conflict: Battlefield Archaeology from Sparta to the Korean War (co-edited with Douglas D. Scott and Charles Haecker), Potomac Press, 2006; A Devil of a Whipping - The Battle of Cowpens. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998 and Maritime Archaeology - A Guide to Theoretical and Substantive Contributions (co-edited with Hans Van Tilburg). New York: Plenum Press, 1998. We have moved our headquarters to Charleston, South Carolina. Our new mailing address is 520 Folly Road, Suite P-379, Charleston, SC 29412. Our phone and emails will remain the same. During the move we were without internet and phone service. If we did not respond to you please contact us again and we apologize for any inconvenience. We receive lots of welcome emails from our subscribers. One of the most thoughtful comes from Edward Elko of Millersville, M.D., who expresses concern about diminishing interest in the Civil War among Americans today. He cites declining attendance figures for reenactments and other events. We tend to look at the bright side of things, however, and in this we are cheered by the report of the Brunswick Civil War Round Table of Southport, N.C. At its recent meeting of December 6, Mike James portrayed Abraham Lincoln in front of a packed auditorium— several hundred people coming out to re-experience the War. This is the kind of event which reminds us of what the great Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989) wrote a half-century ago: “the Civil War is our only ‘felt’ history—history lived in the national imagination.” We thank both Mr. Elko and Chuck Roedema, Brunswick CWRT Publicist—keep those emails coming!