University of Arkansas Press Publishes 'Worthy of the Cause for Which They Fight'

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas Press has published Worthy of the Cause for Which They Fight: The Civil War Diary of Brigadier General Daniel Harris Reynolds, 1861-1865 ($34.95, paper), edited by Robert Patrick Bender.

Reynolds, a community leader with a thriving law practice in Chicot County, Arkansas, entered service with the Confederate army in 1861 as a captain in command of Company A of the First Arkansas Mounted Rifles. He saw action at Wilson’s Creek and Pea Ridge before the regiment was dismounted and transferred to the Army of Tennessee.

As Reynolds fought through the battles of Chickamauga, Atlanta, Nashville and Bentonville, N.C., he consistently kept a diary in which he described the harsh realities of battle, the shifting fortunes of war, and the personal and political conflicts that characterized and sometimes divided the soldiers.

According to Daniel E. Sutherland and T. Michael Parrish, series editors of the Press’s Civil War in the West series, Worthy is rare because few officers kept a diary through the entire war and also because it traces one man’s evolution from company commander to brigade commander. “Students will learn much about the internal workings of the Confederate army, from its lowest to its highest military levels, including problems of supply, breakdowns in discipline, and bickering within the officer corps,” the editors said in the book’s preface.

John F. Marszalek, executive director and managing editor of the Ulysses S. Grant Association at Mississippi State University, called Worthy “an important publication that will find a ready audience among historians and buffs.”

Robert Patrick Bender, a two-time graduate of the University of Arkansas with master’s and doctoral degrees in history, teaches at Eastern New Mexico University–Roswell. He is the author of Like Grass before the Scythe: The Life and Death of Sgt. William Remmel, 121^st New York Infantry.

The University of Arkansas Civil War in the West series promotes historical writing about the war in the western states and territories, providing scholarly monographs, new editions of important out-of-print books, and edited writings by particpants in the war.