I figured I would address some of the comments made concerning my Civil War in Indian Territory Blue & Gray article. First let me thank everyone who bought a copy and read it. I know it was hard to find in most places. But.. maybe that's a good thing. First, I was responsible for the actual battle maps but I did not do the larger campaign maps. Those were done by Dave Roth. I don't remember if I even reviewed them prior to publishing. I think the maps are excellent although there are a few location mistakes. But they are great to look at.

Second, I'm just as confused about the location of Round Mountain as everyone else. I figured to stay on the safe side and go with the quasi-official OHS location out near the KRMG towers. There is so little imformation available about the location that I wouldn't even try to tackle that hot potato in a general article. I get a headache whenever I try to sort through all of the conflicting opinions. I really would love to take a few weeks and concentrate on that subject to see if I could determine the exact locations. And I agree with you that the Yale location is wrong. It is so far out of the general area that I almost immediately dismissed it. One thing I would love to discover is why Opotheyahola and his band went so slow in their retreat to Kansas.

Finally, I was advised of one mistake in the article. I mis-identified the iron guns in Hopkins' battery as "rifled guns." That is incorrect. There isn't any information whether the guns were rifled or smoothbore.

Michael J. Manning
Chief Ranger
Fort Donelson National Battlefield, Tennessee
National Park Service