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From:
Subject: With Porter In North Missouri
Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2006 18:20:47 EST


> There is a book that I did find at the Camp Pope Bookshop that you
> suggested
> that is also very interesting.  It is called, I believe "With Porter in
> Northern Missouri" and is an actual account of a member of the Confederate
> "Porter's Gang."
>
That book fairly rare and quite sought after. I have two of them, from the
early editions, as well as one of the recent reprints.

Permit me a slight quiver at the use of the term "gang." Joe Porter was a
state guard officer, then a commissioned Confederate officer, effective enough
that General Schofield (U.S.) testified before the Committee On The Conduct Of
The War that some 100,000 Confederate cavalry had been operating against him
north of the Missouri River.

I should disclose a bias. Porter and his brother married women from my
family, and three of my ancestors (at least) rode with him at one time or another
- one is mentioned in passing in that book. Oh - and Porter was executor of
my great-great-great grandfather's estate, I am told.

One needn't be a partisan to regard Joseph Porter as a remarkable man and a
considerable soldier. One would need to be a partisan to regard him as
anything less.

Bob Hawkins
Nashville, TN


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