finally have some time to comment on Bill Shea's MOST EXCELLENT book on Prairie Grove; in a word - CLASSIC!!!!!!!

While reading about the hardcore marches, camps, and fighting that both sides performed, I flashed on a phrase that Ed Bearss shouted during his intro for a historical marker dedication in June 2008 near Yazoo City, MS: " I AM NOT AN EFFETE EASTERNER!!!!!" (Ed is a Native of Montana).

Hard marches by Stonewall Jackson's men, A.P. Hill's men, etc.?...PEH! (Israeli sound of contempt)....I think not when compared to the soldiers in Hindman's, Herron's, and Blunt's commands at Prairie Grove.

The rebs and yankees described in Bill's STELLAR book were most definitely NOT effete easterners in the Bearssian sense of the phrase!!!!

It is FANTASTIC (!!!!!!) that the soldiers who fought in the Trans-Mississippi theater are finally beginning to to get some attention from careful and serious historians like Bill Shea. If you don't already have this book, go buy it for your collection; it is more than worth whatever money you pay for it...!!!!

thanks, Bill and UNC Press....!!!!!!!

Kenneth Byrd