Mutiny at Fort Jackson: The Untold Story of the Fall of New Orleans

Acknowledgments

acknowledgments In the course of writing this book, I have enjoyed the help and encouragement of a great many people. They may not have saved me from all of my errors, but they have certainly made this a better work of history than it would have been without their help. Essential support has come from institutions. I am grateful to several groups for funding the archival research trips that underlie this work. In particular, I am indebted to the Lowell National Historical Park for making me its Scholar in the City in 2003 and to the Andersonville National Historical Site for one of its Prisoner of War Research Grants. I have also bene- fited from two travel grants from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, including an award from the College of Fine Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences and a Joseph P. Healey Research Grant. I have also enjoyed support from two fine History Department chairmen while working on this book; Charles Carroll and Joseph Lipchitz not only have come through with financial support but also have created a relaxed department culture that enables people to concentrate on their teaching and research. The University of Massachusetts, Lowell, has also supported the research for this book through two Faculty-Student Collaborative Research Seed Grants. These grants enabled me to work with two wonderful undergraduates , Megan Williams and Katherine Smith. Both did extensive and demanding research in the newspapers of the period, and citations to periodicals throughout this book usually reflect their work. I appreciate their careful scholarship and enthusiasm. My thanks also to Marvin Stick, Robert Tuholski, and the other members of the Teaching and Learning Grant Task Force for approving my applications. I would like to thank the Massachusetts Historical Society for graciously allowing me to use material here that previously appeared in the Massachusetts Historical Review. xii Acknowledgments This work could not have been completed without the hard work of librarians and archivists at the many institutions listed in the bibliography. Pamela D. Arceneaux and Siva M. Blake at the Historic New Orleans Collection and Jamie Kingman Rice and William David Barry of the Maine Historical Society were especially helpful and welcoming. The staff members of the Louisiana State University library and the American Antiquarian Society also made my time at their archives not only rewarding but unusually pleasant. Arthur House of the National Archives provided necessary long-distance assistance on a specific project, and I appreciate his help. I would also like to thank Deborah Friedman and Rose Paton of uml’s O’Leary Library for their friendly assistance. Stephen V. Ash and Victoria Bynum have generously read the entire manuscript, and they made many suggestions for how to make it a better book. My thanks to both of them. Gary Gallagher, the editor of the Civil War America series, likewise offered a valuable reading of the manuscript. Crandall Shifflett and Michael Fitzgerald also read parts of this project in its earlier phases, and their enthusiasm helped move it along. Friendly discussions with Stacey Robertson, Frank Towers, Ron and Mary Zboray, and Fred Blue made this project that much more fun. One of my joys over the past few years in Lowell has been becoming active in a variety of local historical organizations, including the Lowell Historical Society, the Gilman E. Sleeper Camp #60 of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, and the Friends of Major General Benjamin F. Butler. Through these organizations, I have had the chance to talk about this project and, more important, share in the enthusiasm for history that fills these meetings. There is not room here to thank all of these people by name, but special thanks to Cynthia and Ellsworth Brown, Benjamin Emerick , Philip Belanger, Denise Cailler, Tom Langan, Martha Mayo, and Marie Sweeney. My mother, Jane Church Pierson, has been a joy to visit and talk with for the whole long time that it has taken to write this book. Moving to Massachusetts has made it possible to once again regularly see my brother, Eric; his wife, Beverley; and their charming son, Ethan. This book is dedicated to their other son, Jordan, who is much missed. Laura Barefield has shared my life throughout the long years of this book’s production. At times, her assistance has been direct and material, Acknowledgments xiii at other times subtle and quiet, but always it has been...