Jeff, I appreciate being directed to your blog for a first visit. (That led, naturally, to reading the entire posted pages, a bookmark for the future, another contribution to my continuing education ... and the loss of a couple of hours of my own research!) Your latest entry, the subject of which you called to our attention, is a fine overview of the war in the East from the perspective of Mississippi involvement, and pages devoted to Vicksburg, the home front, and the men in the ranks were riveting. I was especially interested in reading the respectful attitudes of these last toward their foes, an attitude that seems mutual. The letter to his mother from the dying soldier was the equal of the familiar "tell father I fell with my face to the enemy" dying letter back East. Good work!