A Big Pile of…Papers

As described here, about a month ago my friend Dave Powell forwarded to me a big binder full of Bull Run material that was part of a purchase he made from Brent Nosworthy, author of Roll Call to Destiny.  Brent was looking to downsize his files, passed the word along to a discussion group to which we both belong, and Dave decided to take a little risk and make the buy.  Beforehand, he and I worked it out that I would purchase the Bull Run material from Dave, and that’s what we did.  So for the past month or more, this binder that is literally overflowing with stuff has been sitting in my family room.  It’s not organized in any way that makes sense to me, though it probably makes plenty of sense to Mr. Nosworthy.  I’ve been afraid to attempt to organize it, overwhelmed a bit by the volume.  I just now poked my head in the binder: there are photocopies of unpublished, handwritten letters, published memoirs and regimental histories, at least one dissertation, and dozens of newspaper articles.  There’s a long collection of typewritten letters from what appears to be members of Hampton’s Legion, but it starts in the middle of a paragraph and I’m not sure from where it originates.  The long and short of it is that this is a big job, but once I get it done I’ll have lots of stuff to put in the resources section.  Just be patient – work has picked up, which is a good thing for my bank and bills, but not so good for time to spend on Bull Runnings.