I figured it wa something like that. Thanks for the information.

Eric

I think that over time, more and more newspapers will be online, as a number of State newspaper projects want to do that, they just lack money.

I think I could fill a book with just soldier letters home from Chickamauga, culled from newspapers. And that does not include the casualty lists, BTW, but just working with a number of spectacular letters written by participants to their hometown papers.

I suspect Broadfoot really hoped that the regimental record of events stuff would be more useful, but once in, they had to press on.

Dave Powell

That’s a very good question, and one that I don’t know the answer to.

Eric

I am two things: a ‘specialist’ rather than a ‘generalist’, and an ‘individualist’, that is, a person whose interests involve an individual or individuals rather than groups. Battles, strategies, movements of armies etc. interest me only insofar as they affect the particular individual of interest to me, otherwise, they are simply so much clutter in an already overcrowded mental ‘attic’. Of course, all biographers are ‘perforce’, ‘individualists’ at least during the time that they are writing on their particular subject although they may – and usually do – return to a more general and group oriented field of interest once that work is accomplished.

Still, what I would love to see – and to a certain extent has been the case with very important figures of the War – Lee, Grant, etc. – are books which allow one to find out information on an individual without having to purchase the umpteen books, papers, publications etc. which comprise the source material. Some people say that this is already extant when one reads a biography of the individual, but that is not necessarily the case. Biographies cover a great many things and frequently for the sake of sheer volume, they leave out interesting side lights, speculations, newspaper coverage of the individual etc. which might be of great interest to the researcher while adding little to the biography itself.

I just wish that there was a ‘general index’ of the historical period – and for some time preceding and subsequent to it – which would direct the researcher to anything and everything that has been printed about the subject, listing the name of the book and/or publication and whatever is necessary to obtain the information including libraries where the documents might be copied or read if copying is not permitted. At least such a source would prevent one’s buying books sight unseen ‘just because’ it MIGHT have different and unusual reference material only to find out that the person of interest isn’t even mentioned therein!

Since you were a contributor to the project, can you give us any insight/input into why so much good stuff was left out?

Eric

Exactly my point. I agree with you.

There is so much more out there, and it all could have been done for so much less money.

Eric