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A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S Many persons have helped me with the research for this book. I would like to acknowledge in particular the assistance of Mike Musick, Mike Meier, Bill Lind, and Stuart Butler, at the National Archives; Bob Melchiori, of Vienna, Virginia; Joan Caldwell and Bill Meneray, at the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University, New Orleans; Faye Phillips, with the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge; Virginia Smith, at the Massachusetts HistoricalSociety in Boston; Gail Bishop, with the National Park Service at the Gulf Islands National Seashore in Mississippi; and Fred Smith, at Choctaw Books in Jackson, Mississippi. I also appreciate the encouragement, support, and counsel of numerous friends, students, and colleagues at the Universityof Southern Mississippi, especially Orazio Ciccarelli, Jeanne Ezell, John Guice, Stan Hauer, David Huffman, Brenda Mattson, Paul McCarver, Neil McMillen, Lisa Moon, Henry Simmons, Kristi Vail, and Andy Wiest. My thanks also to Betty Ruth Hawkins for her assistance in preparing the maps and to Brian Wright for his editorial work on the proofs. XI This page intentionally left blank ...

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