Block indicates that the original diary (1) was loaned to him by Dr Haskell M Moore of Texas A&M (Dean and Professor of History) for use in his Master's thesis (2). In a later article about Spaight's 11th TX Battalion (3), he also indicates that Dr. Monroe, then President of the University of Missouri, was the owner of the original handwritten diary.

However, in talking to the now retired Dr. Haskell Monroe yesterday, he indicated that he has never seen the diary and knows nothing of its location or credibility. I also communicated with Block's son, W. T. Block III, and he knows nothing of the diary or its origin. The W. T. Block, Jr. papers are in collections at McNeese and Lamar Universities. I have e-mailed them, asking about the diary, and have also searched UnTex, UnMO, Texas A&M, and Sam Houston State, without a positive outcome.

Don

(1) Connor, H. N. "The Diary of 1st Sergeant H. N. Block," transcribed, edited and annotated by W. T. Block, Jr. Noel Memorial Library, Archives and Special Collections, Louisiana State University at Shreveport. (In collections at UTex-Austin, Sam Houston State Un., LSU-S, and the Houston City Library)

(3) Block, W. T., Jr. A History of Jefferson County Texas From Wilderness to Reconstruction. Nederland, TX: Nederland Publishing. Co., 1976. (The MA Thesis was done while a graduate student in History at Lamar University, Beaumont, TX)

(2) Block, W. T., Jr. “11th Battalion, Texas Volunteers, Confederate States Army.” East Texas Historical Journal XXX, No. 1 [1992]: 44-57.