Brian Pohanka - March 20, 1955 - June 15, 2005

My friend died Tuesday morning. It wasn't a surprise. We have been on what could be termed a "death watch" for about a month now. But he passed away in his sleep Tuesday morning.
I didn't know him very long (4 years) but in that time we developed a bond.

He was a well known historian and a bit of a celebrity in the world of Civil War Re-enacting and Civil War History. His was a pioneer within the preservation community (Preserving Civil War battlefields), as he was one of the first people to realize that these precious sites needed to be saved from the developers tractors and he put his money where his mouth was. As well as his time and his pen.

All of this made my friend a very important and well known person in many historical circles. He has been seen on the History Channel as one of the historians on The Civil War Journal as well as Ken Burn's Civil War Documentary. He was the technical consultant on Glory, Gettysburg, Gods & Generals & Cold Mountain. He was probably the smartest person I have ever met or will ever meet. But all of that has been said or written in the various obituaries that have spring up since Tuesday.

My friend was also one of the kindest, noble and thoughtful people that I have ever had the pleasure to know. He was truly a man of the 19th Century. He would never bad mouth anyone, even when that person deserved it. He was helpful to a fault and did not hold a grudge. He was a true example of what it means to be "A Good Person". I know my gruff "Brooklynite" manner often made him laugh and more than once he took me to task on the way I handled a situation (I was less tactful than I ought to have been) but he never tore me down for it. I learned how to be a better person because of him.

Now he's gone. He leaves a legacy of preservation and vision behind him. But more than that he leaves an example of how people should behave towards each other. He has left a hole in the hobby and in our lives that can never be filled and in my opinion should not be. What we need to do is rise to his challenge. Be better people. Take up the fight in his name. I don't know about anyone else, but that's exactly what I am going to do.

Oh Captain, My Captain,
I will miss our daily e-mails. I will miss our film coversations around the fire. I'll miss your interesting theories regarding Dick Cheney and the Yeti. I'll miss your unending wealth of knowledge.
But most of all, I will miss you.
I will never forget you.
Your Pard
Charlie