The Bravest of the Brave: The Correspondence of Stephen Dodson Ramseur

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments claiming to know everything about the American Civil War is like being the fastest gun in the West. There’s always someone faster. Gary W. Gallagher and Robert K. Krick, scholars and authors with national reputations, are far quicker draws than I, and were both extremely generous with their extensive knowledge and materials related to Stephen Dodson Ramseur. For day-­ to-­ day help, I relied upon the director of the Special Collections at the Alexandria Library, George Combs. His interest in this project preceded mine. George identified resource materials, acquired documents, evaluated my assessments of events, made contact with disparate sources, and provided encouragement, all with his customary tolerance, good humor, and overall appreciation of the Civil War and its chronicles, published and unpublished. A researcher could not expect a compatriot as helpful and loyal as I found in George Combs. From farther away, two other published authorities on the war once again provided their assistance. At the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, John Coski offered help in understanding references that eluded my comprehension . In New Bern, North Carolina, Horace Mewborn uncovered information more readily than I could have done. Transcribing, understanding, and annotating the correspondence of Stephen Dodson Ramseur required the facility to work in multiple disciplines. Ramseur’s West Point years are part of an important prelude to the Civil War that included many well known leaders. It would have been impossible for me to appreciate Ramseur’s experiences at West Point without instruction from the humanities librarian at the academy’s library, Alan Aimone. Marjorie McNinch, librarian at the Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Delaware, also provided support. 318 Acknowledgments The totality of Ramseur’s extant correspondence relates almost as much to his state’s history as it does to the war. To appreciate that dimension of the letters I was fortunate to benefit from the services of the staff at the University of North Carolina’s Wilson Library. Specifically, I was helped time and again by Matthew Turi and Clark Tew in the Manuscripts Department and Jill Wagy, Harry McKown, and Jason Tomberlin in the North Carolina Collection. Bryan McKown at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History and Jan Blodgett, Davidson College Archivist, were also valuable contributors to my research. So much of Ramseur’s writing concerns his “Home Loves” and their lives in and around Lincolnton, North Carolina; help from knowledgeable residents of this area was compulsory. Ann Dellinger, Lincoln County Historical Society, and Darrell Harkey, Lincoln County Historical Coordinator, repeatedly consulted voluminous files and willingly shared their personal knowledge of local history and genealogy to provide information otherwise unavailable to me. Linda Hoyle at the Charles R. Jonas Library and Brian Brown, Gaston County Public Library, also researched obscure references. Ramseur’s solid grounding in religion, literature, and Latin required consultation with professionals in these fields to discern the meaning and identify the sources of his many quotations and expressions. For that assistance , I thank the Venerable Kenneth Letts, Rev. Mary Kieser, Suzanne Kalil at Alexandria’s Kate Waller Barrett Library, and Latin educator Stacey Kenkeremath. Collaborators in other undertakings came to my assistance once again. Craig Kellermann, John Komoroske, Harry Day, Jon Barlow and Dave Demoney graciously provided special expertise without which I would have been lost. And, finally, the staff of the Special Collections in the library system of Alexandria, Virginia, past and present— ​ Leslie Anderson, Rita Holtz, Barbara Winters, Julie Ballin Patton, Michele Lee, Joyce McMullin, and Ada Valaitis— ​ exhibited their signature competence, patience, and amity. Rita warrants special mention for computerizing a graphic of Ramseur’s convoluted extended family, an illustration central to fully understanding his correspondence . To all of the above, and to any others I may have neglected, my heartfelt thanks. The individual who paid the highest price for this work, however, is my wife, Joy. Without her love, acceptance, and forbearance, I would never have known the Dodsons, Ramseurs, and Richmonds of nineteenth-­ century North Carolina and the character of their fallen hero, Stephen Dodson Ramseur. ...