Personal Americana - Capitalizing on this gorgeous Fall afternoon, Jamie indulged me by organizing a day trip to drive the 90 miles out to Gettysburg, PA. We audio-toured the Civil War battleground by car, stopping by the Virginia monument then proceeding past many sites of bloody fighting until we reached the "High Water Mark of the Confederacy." There, at the forefront of Pickett's ill-fated Charge, we stood on the spot where my great-great-great-grandfather fell to Yankee cannonfire and rifleshot. On that hellish Friday afternoon in July 1863, a young father named J.S. Jenkins from Portsmouth, Va., who served as adjutant to Col. James Hodges' 14th Virginia infantry, apparently wasn't far from the place where Gen. Armistead famously leapt the stonewall at The Angle, marking the furthest advance Lee's armies would ever make. Kind of makes me wonder what my descendants will be thinking of me in 141 years.