Sanibel Journal

A week or so before The Isolation, I was thinking about a month of March with warm, sunny Sunday afternoons, when we would give Island Jazz concerts on the patio in front of BIG ARTS.   I needed a sun umbrella that I could clip onto my beach chair, so that I wouldn’t fry to a crisp during those concerts, I thought.   So I ordered one from Amazon. I haven’t used it because of The Isolation.   Within a couple days after the March 8 concert, my husband Tom and I knew enough about the corona virus that we decided to cancel all seven of the remaining concerts for the season. This No-Knead Bread tastes like something we would buy in a bakery in Paris. Then came a stream of orders from Amazon.com that tell one aspect of the story of our isolation.    Each week of The Isolation, we have ordered everything from the local Bailey’s General Store that we can – but there are perturbations in the supply chains, and sometimes Bailey’s cannot deliver certain items.   The first pro

William McAdams, Sr., was a tall man with fair skin and blue eyes.  He was of Scottish ancestry, the sort of Scot who knew much about cattle and horses, and who wrote many letters.  When he was 25 years old, he was already known as one of the best farmers in Illinois; he was a particularly well-known breeder of Shorthorn cattle. In 1861, at that young age of 25,  he entered the Union army's 59th infantry and was given quartermaster duties in Company H.  This was not a simple job; there was no effective supply chain during the Civil War.  McAdams and his colleagues had to acquire supplies as the army moved through the South.  How was this accomplished?  Well, McAdams and his colleagues would sneak out to the next town, ahead of the other soldiers, and they'd steal the best horses, cattle, and food that they could find.  That's how a large part of the provisions were procured. War is hell.  This Company H was in the battles of Pea Ridge, Bay Springs, Liberty Gap, Chattanoo