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richcondon.bsky.social
| Historian | Researcher | Writer | Yinzer | | Civil War and Reconstruction Era | *Opinions shared here are my own*
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Just for good measure.

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

On this day 163 years ago Robert Smalls and those enslaved aboard the steamer Planter emancipated themselves under seemingly impossible odds. On May 13, 1862 they lived their first day free from bondage. Their story continues to inspire countless people to this day.

submitted 1 day ago • 4 comments

It was a busy Sunday.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Happy Mother’s Day to the most inspiring, considerate, supportive, and loving mom anyone could ask for. She’s been putting up with my crap for 36 years.

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

Happy Birthday, John Brown. His soul goes marching on.

submitted 4 days ago • 6 comments

The Spring 2025 semester is now in the rear-view, and I’m currently recovering, but the workload is always worth the stress. Thanks to Dr. Brianna Frakes for nominating my most recent term paper for inclusion in The Cupola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College! cupola.gettysburg.edu/glihist/9/

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

I won’t candy-coat it; 2025 has been a shit year. As it turns out, however, there are some bright spots along the way. Witnessing my nephew get bit by the history bug is one of them.

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

Park rangers in 2025

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Between May 1-3, 1866 a mob of white men, 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

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

A lunchtime view from Blue Ridge Summit vista looking toward Sabillasville, MD, where approximately 200 soldiers from Col. Charles Coster’s brigade were assigned the morning of July 1, 1863. The remainder of the brigade suffered more than 50% casualties that afternoon just north of Gettysburg.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Hug a park ranger today. Then call your representatives.

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

These two are absolutely linked.

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

On May 1, 1865 an estimated 10,000 people, many formerly enslaved, paraded around Charleston’s Washington Race Course (modern Hampton Park), which had been repurposed as a prison camp during the last few months of the Civil War. The 54th Mass, 34th USCT, and 104th USCT accompanied the crowd. 1/4

submitted 12 days ago • 2 comments

Last term paper of Spring 2025, and enough beverages to get me past the finish line.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Today marks 7 years with the National Park Service. It feels like just yesterday I was donning my first flat hat as a seasonal park ranger at Flight 93 National Memorial. I’ve been sharing ranger points and historical anecdotes ever since.

submitted 14 days ago • 2 comments

Last week of the semester…

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

Smoke belching forth from the Micheaux State Forest wildfires, as seen from the position of the 155th Pennsylvania Infantry on Little Round Top.

submitted 16 days ago • 2 comments

On April 26, 1865 Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was shot and mortally wounded by Boston Corbett of the 16th New York Cavalry.

submitted 17 days ago • 3 comments

An afternoon pipe with the ancestors.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

A week off is what the doctor ordered.

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

My great great great great great grandfather did not stand for kings. Nor will I.

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

On April 18, 1861 Pennsylvania troops responded to a call for the defense of the United States Capitol in the wake of the Confederate attack on Ft. Sumter. As they passed through Baltimore they were attacked by pro-slavery locals. The first man wounded was a freedman - Nicholas Biddle of Pottsville.

submitted 25 days ago • 2 comments

Two more weeks of this...then three more semesters.

submitted 26 days ago • 1 comment

General Waylon surveys the battlefield from his temporary HQ, ca. 2025.

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

I’m 6’ and 220 pounds.

submitted 28 days ago • 1 comment

Where are all of the “don’t tread on me” folks now?

submitted 28 days ago • 4 comments

On April 13, 1862, two days after US troops captured Savannah’s Fort Pulaski, General David Hunter issued Orders No. 7, declaring all “persons of color lately held to involuntary service by enemies of the United States in Fort Pulaski and on Cockspur Island, Georgia…hereby confiscated and… free…”

submitted 30 days ago • 1 comment

Ancient civilizations built exquisite monuments to lesser feline species. All hail Fluffers.

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

Happy Appomattox Day to all who celebrate, and even those who don’t.

submitted 34 days ago • 1 comment

You know what day it is.

submitted 35 days ago • 1 comment

Federal workers are feeling this now more than ever.

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

New month, new office layout.

submitted 37 days ago • 1 comment

On April 5, 1839 Robert Smalls was born in Beaufort, South Carolina. His mother, Lydia, couldn’t have imagined that her son would eventually come to own the land on which they were once enslaved, or that he’d live in the home on that property as a US Congressman, or die a free man in 1915.

submitted 38 days ago • 1 comment

Three cheers for Wisconsin!

submitted 39 days ago • 0 comments

“We’ve got some difficult days ahead…I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.” -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., April 3, 1968 King was murdered in Memphis the following day by a white supremacist.

submitted 39 days ago • 0 comments

New books mean new bookshelves.

submitted 40 days ago • 1 comment