- Joined
- Feb 5, 2017
by Edward S. Alexander
Frustrated by a lack of assistance, he abandoned that project. If completed, it would have provided the information that every battlefield historian desires.
Shortly after the war, First Corps commander James Longstreet asked Alexander to write a history of the corps. Alexander optimistically expected to complete the project during his first three-month vacation as professor of mathematics and engineering at the University of South Carolina, but he soon realized he could not complete it without help. In the fall of 1866 he sent out a letter to every First Corps division, brigade, regiment, and battery commander and staff officer whose address he could track down. He requested copies of reports, primary accounts of prominent events written for publication or private reference, particular accounts of skirmishers not mentioned in general reports, topographical sketches of battlefields, unit histories, and orders of battle for each stage of the war. He also provided a form for each officer to input much of the data.
Read the rest of the article at https://emergingcivilwar.com/2019/05/21/e-p-alexanders-research-methodology/#more-181733