The press of business has led to an extended absence from
the blog, but now my schedule allows me to begin posting again. Today, I’m
feeling a bit nostalgic and in the mood to share a personal story.
The War Of The
Rebellion: Official Records Of The Union and Confederate Armies is the key
reference work relating to the war. While I was reading Bruce Catton’s This Hallowed Ground, I first became
aware of endnotes and their significance. At the time I was eleven years old
and developed a determination to see volume ten, part one of the Official Records. From the endnotes, I
learned that this book held battle reports relating to the battle of Shiloh,
and I badly wanted to read about the activities of the 16th
Louisiana Infantry, a unit that my g-g-grandfather served in. The Shawnee
Public Library did not have the set, but somehow I learned that the library at
Oklahoma Baptist University did own a set. My mom, always willing to aid me in
my endeavors, approached the O. B. U. library director, Dr. Stanley Benson,
with me in tow. We told him that I wanted to see the Official Records, and he appeared startled. This was my first clue
that few people asked to see the set. He graciously took us into the storage
area where the volumes sat encased in dust. Dr. Benson was pleased that I knew
about endnotes and still more impressed when I correctly informed him that volume ten,
part one was indeed about Shiloh. At that point, he agreed to give my mom a
special library card so that I could check out books.
In the weeks following,
the Official Records mysteriously
emerged from the storage area and appeared (dusted) in the regular stacks. With
my mom’s magic library card, I could check out volumes of the Official Records along with bound copies
of original editions of The Confederate
Veteran and many other prizes. Dr. Benson’s willingness to allow me to use
the library collection certainly helped me maintain my interest in the American
Civil War. I suppose it is not surprising that I decided to attend O. B. U. And
it didn’t stop there…Dr. Benson also hired me as a student worker at the O. B.
U. library and encouraged me to work toward a master’s degree in library
science. It came as no surprise to him, though, that after earning the master’s
degree I decided to work toward a Ph.D. in history with an emphasis on the
American Civil War.
Today, I
received a copy of Dr. Donald S. Frazier’s new book, Blood on the Bayou: Vicksburg, Port Hudson, and the Trans-Mississippi, the
third volume in his Louisiana Quadrille series.
The previous volumes are written in a lively way, are well researched, and
packed with maps and illustrations. Frazier admits in his foreword, “This is
not the book I intended to write….as I opened myself to the sources, I felt
compelled to go where they led; that is the essence of history….As with the
other books in the series, the military campaigns remain front and center…However,
the sources revealed an almost obsessive concern over slavery. Actually, these
soldiers, civilians, and politicians did not fret over the institution of
slavery as much as control over the slaves themselves” (p. vii).
