Gerald D. Swick, the senior online editor for ArmchairGeneral.com and HistoryNet .com, is a historian, writer, gamer, and incorrigible punster who also plays a pretty mean guitar.

Gerald was the author of the “Commander Dossier” and “Weapon Files” departments, as well as features such as “Yamamoto’s Dilemma” and “Washington at Germantown,” for Armchair General magazine. His work has appeared in The Encyclopedia of World War II: A Political, Social and Military History, The West Virginia Encyclopedia, and numerous magazines including The Games Annual. For 10 years, he has written a history column for the Exponent Telegram newspaper in his hometown of Clarksburg, West Virginia, and he continues to author the weekly column although he now lives elsewhere. He says the highlight of his career came when he and research partner Donna D. McCreary discovered a letter that solved the 70-year-old mystery of why Abraham Lincoln’s eldest son, Robert, is buried in Arlington instead of in Springfield, Illinois, with the rest of the family.

At various times while hiding from the law, he has been a museum attendant at Stonewall Jackson’s boyhood home site, marketing director for Steve Jackson Games, and an editor of books that include the award-winning Historic Photos of Theodore Roosevelt.