Love and War

the separate atlases. I have a friend who owns one of the very few complete sets in private hands in this country. For invaluable help, I hereby thank him, though not by name, because he prefers to remain anonymous.

In Liverpool, K. J. Williams, honorable secretary of the Merseyside Confederate Navy History Society, and Cliff Thornton, curator of the Williamson Museum and Art Gallery, Birkenhead, became new friends while proving themselves expert guides to the various sites connected with the Confederacy. To Jerry, my thanks are almost inexpressible. And I shall never forget the windy summer afternoon Cliff and my wife and I received dispensation to enter a fenced patch of land on the bank of the Mersey, where we gazed down, at low tide, on some slipways Cliff himself had never seen before — perhaps the very ways where Alabama was built. No one knows exactly which ways held her, but the abandoned land is the site of Laird's in the 1860s. That is a thrill of discovery to be remembered always.

Senator Ernest Hollings and Ms. Jan Buvinger and her staff at the Charleston Public Library helped me track down a copy of the fascinating, if prolix, West Point appropriation bill debate.

My friend Jay Mundhenk, whose Civil War expertise is matched only by his skill as chef and host, solved several difficult problems about operations in northern Virginia when I was at a dead end.

Robert E. Schnare, chief, Special Collections Division of the Library at the U.S. Military Academy, was generous and helpful in matters as diverse as the daily whereabouts of the Army of the Potomac's Battalion of Engineers throughout the war and the contents of the cavalry tactics manual in use at the beginning. As with North and South, the cooperation of the West Point library has been all an author could wish for.

Arnold Graham Smith, M.D., was invaluable on medical matters. Other special questions were answered with the help of Belden Lee Daniels; Peggy Gilmer; Dr. Thomas L. Johnson, of the South Carolinians Library; Bob Merritt, of the Richmond Times-Dispatch; Donna Payne, president of the Rochester, New York, Civil War Roundtable; John E. Stanchak, editor of Civil War Times; and Dan Starer. Two of my daughters, Dr. Andrea Jakes-Schauer and Victoria Jakes Montgomery, helped with work on special topics.

In addition to the gratitude expressed to my editor in the dedication, I cannot overlook a number of other people in publishing.

Julian Muller's assistant, Joan Judge, handled quite literally reams of computer-printed manuscript with her customary efficiency and good cheer. Rose Ann Ferrick brought her speed and fine judgment to preparation of the fine typescript, which then benefited from the talents of Roberta Leighton, copy editor nonpareil.

My old friend and colleague classmate Walter Meade, of Avon Books, contributed in a special way he understands.

And my publisher, Bill Jovanovich, continued to stand behind the project.

My attorney, adviser, and friend, Frank Curtis, was along during every step of the two-year journey to this point of completion.

So, too, were all the members of my family, but especially my wife, Rachel, to whom I once again tender my gratitude and love.

                                   John Jakes

Hilton Head Island

April 30, 1984