[Main Street]

AmericanMother, thank you for the info. We wrote the National Archives some years ago, and they also had his records. I'd like to find out where he is buried, but after that explosion, I doubt there was anything left to bury.

I really enjoyed reading about your family history. You're very lucky to have those wonderful letters. Have you ever thought of publishing them? I know that there is a definite interest for such first hand history, as that of your family during the War.

[AnAmericanMother]

MacPherson (who was my professor at Princeton) has used some of them in his books. They are currently in the Harrold Collection at Emory University (the Harrolds are collaterals of ours).

They would probably be worth publishing. N.W.E. was a bad speller, but he had a wonderful, spare, almost modern style and a gift for observation (and irony). It is interesting to contrast his attitude to war with that of one of my other gg grandfathers, S.H. Dent who commanded Dent's Alabama Battery, which pulled the cannon up Snodgrass Hill by hand at the climax of the battle of Chickamauga. His letters home are florid, full of classical turns of phrase and flights of oratory. He waxes eloquent re "our glorious cause" etc. N.W.E. is of a much more homely and practical turn of mind: "Chap Murrell has the measles but is not dangerous" - "Your parcel was gratefully received and we are making your eatables squat" - "I am not responsible for the horse's name and sold him partly on that account." (the name of the horse is lost to us!)

I would have enjoyed a dinner party with Grandpa Dent, but I think I would have liked to go fishing with Grandpa Long.