New England Vacation Vignette 1: Civil War statuary, an officer in Providence RI and an enlisted man in South Hadley MA.

Ambrose Burnside was born in Liberty, Indiana (appropriately, in Union County) near the border with Ohio. He became a Rhode Island resident only after being stationed there while serving in the antebellum US military.

One of the most interesting things about Burnside, apart from his trademark facial whiskers (originally called burnsides, then sideburns), was the woman he didn't marry.

Prior to the Civil War, Burnside was engaged to Lottie Moon. She famously jilted him at the altar. Later during the conflict Moon and her sister became notorious Confederate spies. Eventually the sisters were captured and fell into the custody of none other than Burnside, who detained them but didn't file espionage charges.

Just before the outbreak of war Burnside succeeded in designing and patenting an innovative breech-loading carbine (the Burnside carbine). This might have brought him great wealth when wartime government orders began pouring in, except he'd been compelled to surrender the patents when thrown into debt by business reversals.

As a Civil War general Burnside occasionally was productive in a subordinate's role, but was not a top-flight officer. He was self-aware and recognized his own limitations at all levels of military command. This didn't stop Abraham Lincoln from appointing Burnside to lead the Army of the Potomac, resulting in the catastrophic Battle of Fredericksburg in late 1862.

For all this, but perhaps more so by virtue of a postwar political career as a Rhode Island governor and senator, Burnside posthumously was awarded a small park and equestrian statue in downtown Providence.

I knew nothing of this when we visited the capital, although the statue looked somewhat like Burnside from a distance. The following day I went for a stroll in South Hadley, Massachusetts and found myself somewhat entranced by this simple statue on the village green.

It reads, "This monument is erected to commemorate the loyalty and patriotism of our citizen soldiers who fought for liberty and the union in the Great Rebellion of 1861 - 1865."

In fact, "great rebellion" is a far more accurate description of the war than the terms we use today, and whether one is a pacifist or hawk, "citizen soldiers" reminds us of who did the heavy lifting and made the ultimate sacrifice.

Ambrose Burnside, officer, inventor and politician. To look at his life is to see a popular, well-liked man who knew how to play his hand, and always had a second chance waiting irrespective of how badly he'd botched the previous opportunity.

The soldier at South Hadley symbolizes the men who did the actual work, died and were maimed. Many didn't return from the Civil War, and many of the ones who did came home scarred, whether by wounds or the weight of the experience.

To me, Burnside assuredly was on the "right" side, but I'm not sure there is any better justification to leave his equestrian statue stand unmolested than the one of Confederate officer John B. Castleman at Louisville's Cherokee Triangle.

Give me the guy in South Hadley, any day.

New England 2017: A sunny day's walk in Northampton, and Rauchbier revisited.

The barista at Esselon Cafe asked me if I was a music teacher. I said no, just an intuitive drummer.

As is my usual custom, I'll be posting photos, commentary and links about our trip; the daily accounts will be back-dated to coincide with their occurrence. It won't be the most thrilling reading, but in addition to whatever else NAC may or may not have become over the years, it's still a personal blog, and you're fully entitled to views of our holiday.

We awoke on Thursday morning in a condition gradually approaching exhaustion, albeit of a pleasing holiday-like type. This was briefly remedied by a visit to the superb Esselon Cafe in Hadley.

Independently owned and operated, Esselon was founded in June 2006 and has grown from an award winning cafe, to a retail and wholesale provider of fresh-roasted artisan coffees, fine teas, and coffee equipment, coffee and accessories. Both our cafe staff, and our roasting crew, are highly committed to quality, consistency, and friendly attentive service.

The coffee, sweets and meals are first-rate (we returned both Friday and Saturday), and they've done wonderfully with a transplanted tin ceiling.

Northampton kept calling us back, and we kept obeying. On Thursday, Jen and Ruby joined us for a stroll through historic neighborhoods where we'd be lucky to be able to afford the shed in the backyard.

This caught my attention.

Absolutely no, insists New Albany's governing elite -- it simply isn't possible to paint a crosswalk.

Lunch brought us to Northampton Brewery for a second time.

Later in the afternoon after Ben got off work, Diana stayed to babysit Ruby while I accompanied the Brennans to Fort Hill Brewery in Easthampton, to which Ben had introduced me last year.

Lovely Rauchbier. A smoked golden lager was on tap, too, and we took a growler back to South Hadley for dinner.

From their web site.

Dinner was smoked lager from Fort Hill and carry-out from Autentica Mexican Food, which is located in the Commons opposite Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, walking distance from the Brennans.

iAutentica! offers a unique menu that features the famous red and green chilé, commonly associated with the state of New Mexico. Only the freshest chilés from New Mexico, the Mecca of where chilés are grown in the United States are used.

For the first time our whole trip, the Friday forecast called for sustained day-long rain. It didn't matter. That's why we have package stores.

Eastern USA Road Trip 2016, Day 5: Ruby welcomes the Confidentials to Massachusetts.

The whole point of the eastern road trip was for my wife Diana to visit Ruby, the five-month-old daughter of her niece Jen. Ben is Jen's husband, and they're wonderful folks, indeed.

The Confidentials rented another excellent Airbnb, this time the basement apartment of a house in a rural area a mile away from Jen's and Ben's house. It is so "country" that the owner recently saw a mama bear and cubs in the back yard, and garbage left too long in the outside can is in danger of being disrupted by critters.

However, within a 50-mile radius of our lodging, there are ample human populations as well as 51 colleges and universities, including UMass (Amherst), Smith and Mount Holyoke, the latter located in South Hadley, our base of operations for three days.

The next three days were destined to be about family, babies and the sort of domesticity that I've seldom experienced in my life. Perhaps for this reason, it was enjoyable in ways that I wouldn't have expected prior to arrival. I let go of my walking obsession and relaxed. It was high time for such. We hung out a lot, and took a few excursions.

There were beers and food, as at the fine Yarde Tavern in the center of South Hadley, where my Saturday lunchtime Reuben sandwich was delicious with a chaser of Allagash (Maine) Witbier.

Our visit to the Montague Bookmill is described at the Potable Curmudgeon blog:

About the Montague Bookmill, and a few beers in the Massachusetts countryside.

Following are a few frames of many casual photos.

Labor Day weekend in New England is something I could do more than once.