Well, my thesis will be finished July 1, it has been a long two and half years of research that has culminated in a work that I consider as an appendage to me. It is titled: Badgers in the Swamps: The 1st Wisconsin Cavalry in Southeast Missouri, 1862-1863, and will hopefully be published by the end of the summer. Several trips to Wisconsin and countless correspondence with depositories throughout the country have created a monster of research consisting of 18 binders of letters, manuscripts, diaries, photos, and documents (took me two years to find a picture of Colonel Daniels). I cannot believe nothing has been published on this unit (besides fragmented diaries, letters, and experiences by members of the unit). Several of the members were college educated and left a mound of material for researchers. The regiment was in Southeast Missouri a little over a year before it was ordered east of the Mississippi to fill one of Rosecrans' frantic calls for cavalry for his Army of the Cumberland. Their most famous accomplishment of the War was the capture of Jeff Davis. If anyone is looking for anything specific on them, holler.

It's actually funny because when I chose to focus on the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry, my family gave me a hard time about it. I was born and raised in southeast Missouri and all of my family fought for the South, some of them against the 1st Wisconsin. They couldn't figure out why I wanted to do so much research on a "Yankee" outfit. To tell you the truth the main reason I chose them was because unlike several other Union outfits that operated in the region, the 1st Wisconsin seemed to be liked better than other units by the locals and soldiers they encountered. Although authorized to do so, I was unable to find one occasion where they executed a guerrilla (a label they gave anyone they captured or fought against), to the contrary I found several accounts by those they captured that spoke highly of their treatment by the regiment. Were they always nice, of course not, but they behaved themselves far better than the local Missouri State Militia. Anyway, let me know if you need any information about them.

Paul Arnold