A good example is the loss of the early records of the 11th Arkansas Infantry, which the adjutant destroyed to prevent their capture at Island No. 10. Fortunately, the original muster-in rolls of some of the companies were recently found in private hands and donated to the Saline County Historical Society.

There's no doubt that vast amounts of other records were destroyed during the war, but for someone to make the reckless claim that there was some kind of postwar conspiracy to sanitize Confederate records is just preposterous.