ITPW: Worth Reading

[Charles Heath]

Now that folks are looking forward to the excitement of the early 2009 season, this article is well worth reading or rereading:

Civilian Reaction to the Red River Campaign

Yes, it has been posted before, but not everyone has been inclined to read it. The reading list located on the website is pretty darned interesting, too.

ITPW Reading List

Terry Sorchy has assigned me a bit of homework from the period before the campaign went sour for "Commissary Banks," so this thread may be a decent location to post some of that research now and then. Even if you are not attending the event itself, this campaign is fascinating.

This hobby keeps getting better and better.

[Old Reb]

Re: ITPW: Worth Reading

Charles,
It seems the Trans-Mississippi has been discovered by folks east of the big river and they have found that unlike many historic Civil War sites in the east that have been paved over, there is a wild and wooly land to play in and a hardy bunch of miscreants willing to put on wild and wooly events. In addition to the Red River Campaign, in conjunction with that movement, was the Camden Expedition. That one was really wild and wooly!

[Andrew Kasmar]

Re: ITPW: Worth Reading

Hi,

I am about 1/2 through the book Dark and Bloody Ground, and it is a excelent book on the events that happened in the Trans-Mississippi theater of war. The book is listed on the ITPW website, and I would recommend it to anyone going to this event. I also am about to start the book Little to Eat and Thin Mud to Drink Letters, Diaries, and Memoirs From the Red River Campaigns, 1863-1864. This book looks like a great sorce for put together a first person impression.

[Charles Heath]

Re: ITPW: Worth Reading

Commissary Banks was an interesting fellow:

Brief Bio of Banks

[boozie]

Re: ITPW: Worth Reading

I own these two books and finished them before the last event, RRC One Damn Blunder and RRC Cotton and Politics. Both were good pre event reads and I plan on reading them again.

My question is about the book "Through the Howling Wilderness" by Gary Joiner. Is there enough new information in this book that would be worth my time in reading it? I noticed some diffrent opinions from people online who own it. So i'm asking the men of the Trans Miss, is it a good study above the other two?

[DougCooper]

Re: ITPW: Worth Reading

Brand new and very, very good:

Earthen Walls, Iron Men, Fort DeRussy, Louisiana, and the Defense of Red River by Steven Mayeux with forward by Ed Bearss. University of Tennessee Press. See it/buy it here: http://utpress.org/a/searchdetails.php?jobno=T01204

Many of you remember Steve as the head of the Fort DeRussy Historical Society and expert on the subject. He was present before and after BGR and might just be the most grateful man I have ever met for our preservation efforts.