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The original Confederate Veteran Magazine is a great resource. When I worked at the National Archives, a researcher came in and was looking for information on her Confederate ancestor. She said he was also the historian for his regiment (38th Georgia Infantry). I have the index to Confederate Veteran (original version) and I found an article he wrote about the 38th's actions in the Chancellorsville.

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Oh, dear. I am pretty sure I wouldn't do well in the echo chamber contained in those 7 boxes. I am impressed, though, that so much of the original writings were available for sale. That is absolutely amazing! I'm happy all of it is print. I'm sure it's worth it's weight in gold. That's a good find.

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There are certainly elements of what we might call an echo chamber, but to that extent it reflects a position that all of us find ourselves in to one extent or the other.

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You are correct. When one reads the writings of someone like John Singleton Mosby, one sees a man who was not ashamed of his service during the war but who repudiated everything that the Confederacy stood for and fought to preserve. There is value in reading the accounts of former Confederates, but the key is being able to separate the toxicity of much of the “Lost Cause Myth” from what can be learned from reading the accounts of repentant and unrepentant Confederates in the pursuit of historical truth.

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Historian Caroline Janney is working on a biography of Mosby, which I am very much looking forward to reading. I didn’t know that Mosby starred in a silent movie. Fun fact.

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He lived a long and interesting life.

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