Here are some updates. I submitted my article on the Battle of Bayou & Cache River to the Arkansas Historical Quarterly. I submitted earlier in the year, but they requested some rewriting which I completed last month.
As some of you know I am challenging the historical record of the battle and in particular the activities of the 11th Wisconsin.
I am also working on an article for soldierstudies.org titled, “What They Wrote About,” which will use only the 1000 letters that are in the site’s database. a fun project and one I hope to complete soon!
Additionally, I am working on two articles that are more in the research stage. The first one deals with what I am calling “The Cotton Brigade” and its activities during the summer of 1862 along the Mississippi. I hope to show the corruption that existed in Gen. Curtis’s army, and in specific this part of it where colonels and possibly generals profited from illegal speculating in cotton – which also cost the lives of a dozen or more soldiers. The second article which may turn into a possible book, deals with Union soldiers and their experiences as they journeyed into “Rebeldom” and how that experience had an altering effect on them, and specifically their views on slavery, Southern society, and Southern culture. I think I have some interesting ideas on this, but we’ll see.
That’s it for me, if you have some personal updates as my fellow bloggers please feel free to share. I’d love to hear about your upcoming articles, books, and presentations!
