Self-Promotion

Warning: This posting consists of self-promotion. If that offends you, please stop reading now and bide your time until the next posting.

I’m pleased to announce that my essay titled “Daniel Weisiger Adams: Defender of the Confederacy’s Heartland” is included in Confederate Generals in the Western Theater: Essays on America’s Civil War edited by Lawrence Lee Hewitt and Arthur W. Bergeron, Jr. and published by The University of Tennessee Press. Lest you think that I have drifted off the topic of this blog, well, not quite. Brigadier General Adams did serve in the Western Theater, but he did command a fine Louisiana brigade for over a year.

Regrettably, there are limited primary accounts relating to Adams, but isn’t that the case for all too many Civil War participants? Researching and writing the piece about Adams was a fun project; he was an interesting and rather fiery gentleman. I admired the pluckiness of a man who had the nerve to mount the defensive works at Jackson, Mississippi, and fire two musket shots at the enemy.

My essay is illustrated with five maps drawn by Stuart Salling, the author of Louisianians in the Western Confederacy: The Adams-Gibson Brigade in the Civil War (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2010). Stuart’s blog, Louisiana in the Civil War is one I read regularly, and I encourage you to check it out if you haven’t done so.

There are nine other essays in the book featuring well-known individuals such as Leonidas Polk and Albert Sidney Johnston but also some lesser known generals such as Martin Luther Smith, Joseph Finegan, and Hiram Bronson Granbury.