Our Noble Blood: The Civil War Letters of General Regis De Trobriand

When William Styple first approached me looking for information concerning my great-great-grandfather, I was not overly excited, for in the past inquiries about Regis de Trobriand have come to me, but only because someone wanted to mention him in a chapter of a book or because they wanted information for a historical society or museum. However, when Mr. Styple told me that it was his aim to translate and publish a book containing the letters written by ìThe Generalî to his family (mainly to his daughter Lina), I became awed. It has been generations since such an interest has been taken in de Trobriand, and in this time has he become my familyís private general.

Mr. Styple has gone to much trouble to have de Trobriandís letters translated from their native French so that we, even members of his family who have not had the opportunity to read the letters because we do not read French, can now follow the feelings not of a general trying to recreate history, but of a father sharing his intimate experiences and thoughts with his daughter and share, trying to explain what is happening without painful details.

Become the recipient of these letters and by the time you finish reading all of them, my private general will have become yours. Thanks, William Styple, for providing the opportunity for this to happen.

Waldron K. Post II