Dennis, you picked some good ones.

David Upton has been posting here for as long as I can remember, and is one of my favorites. He can always be counted on to come up with fresh ideas for discussion, and back up his position with facts and figures. All too often, discussions on this board deteriorate to playground fusses, usually ending with variations of "So's your old man." But David always seems to keep to the high road.

If you want to see Stephen Whitlock do his stuff, check out Jim Martin's Indian Territory Civil War message board. That's where Stephen usually posts. He's a meticulous researcher. He's the kind of guy who will read about a battle, then drive out to the site and walk the terrain and get a feel for the lay of the land.

Doyle Taylor is an old friend of mine. Here in Arkansas, he's the resident expert and go-to guy on Civil War battles in the Lower Arkansas River and Lower White River area. He led a group that located and reclaimed an old Confederate camp at White Sulphur Springs, west of Pine Bluff. His years of research revealed that WSS was the site of a major Confederate military hospital complex. Thanks in large part to him, today it's a beautiful park with memorials and headstones. I was deeply honored and humbled when Doyle invited me to be the keynote speaker at the dedication. They don't make them any better than Doyle.