A volunteer officer with the 9th Texas Cavalry Regiment from 1861 to 1865, James Campbell Bates saw some of the most important and dramatic clashes in the Civil War s western and trans-Mississippi theaters. Bates rode thousands of miles, fighting in the Indian Territory; at Elkhorn Tavern in Arkansas; at Corinth, Holly Springs, and Jackson, Mississippi; at Thompson s Station, Tennessee; and at the crossing of the Etowah River during Sherman s Atlanta campaign. In a detailed diary and dozens of long letters to his family, he recorded his impressions, confirming the image of the Texas cavalrymen as a hard-riding bunch long on aggression and short on discipline. Bates s writings, which remain in the possession of his descendants, treat scholars to a documentary treasure trove and all readers to an enthralling, first-person dose of American history.
Richard Lowe is also the author of The Texas Overland Expedition of 1863; Republicans and Reconstruction in Virginia, 1856--70; and Walker's Texas Division, C.S.A.: Greyhounds of the Trans-Mississippi. He is Regents Professor of History at the University of North Texas.