As far as the 35th is concerned I have found no personal correspondence to give an insight as to the the individual member's perspective of the war. Without those personal viewpoints and an intimate background a true history is incomplete. To not understand why a man acted as he did is to not fully understand his action. I am working on my research proposal this semester and limited to about 20 pages at this point so will only have space to touch briefly on each aspect of the unit. I have been reassured that this proposal will be accepted thus I am gathering everything I can from every nook and cranny to make the final product as comprehensive as possible. i have read personal works of the Union soldiers that faced the 35th at various locations but, as mentioned above, have found no letters/diaries etc from a member of the 35th-- but the search continues.

I plan to spend my off time this summer "living" at MDAH. The people there are wonderful and very helpful. Terry Wenschel of the NPS at Vicksburg has been great with suggestions too. Terry L. Jones, a Louisiana CW specialist and one of my favorite professors, has been an inspiration and huge help.

What do you know of the training the men might have received? In Louisiana many men were trained at Camp Moore etc, but I have heard nothing of where the MS troops were trained. Camp Rogers, Camp Timmons and a few other names have popped up but just in passing reference. I do have some info stating that the 35th was at Corinth in May 62 when PGT Beauregard retreated this leaving a gap of a couple months (about March 62 to early May 62). I would assume the men actually were trained and that training would have taking place during this gap-- but where, what, when, how...

I will be traveling over to Jackson tomorrow to try and answer some of this question in particular and a few of the many others my research has created. It seems the more questions I answer the more questions that jump out at me.

Have you any word of the letters Celeste Young has been working on? Perhaps any other sources of personal information?

Your obedient servant,

Rick Oden