J. H. P., "Vermont Cavalry," Windsor (VT) Park, July 16, 1864

 As I get older, I pray more and more often to find things.  “Oh, Lord, please help me find my keys!”  “Oh, Lord, please help me find my glasses.”

Until yesterday I was praying to find something a little different.

While preparing the manuscript of my latest book for publication, one of my newspaper citations troubled me:  “J. H. P., ‘Vermont Cavalry,’ Windsor (VT) Park, July 16, 1864.”  I didn’t recognize the item to which I was citing.  Ordinarily, the citation would begin with the website from which I obtained it, such as beyondthecrater.com, citing…. or csa-railroads.com, citing… or the citation would end with the page and column number if the item came from newspapers.com or chroniclingamerica.com.

In the absence of a website of origin, I looked at newspapers.com and chroniclingamerica.com.  Neither had a newspaper named the Windsor (VT) Park.  Nor did such a newspaper appear on any other website, such as that of the Vermont Historical Society.

I searched the desktop of my current laptop (the one on which I’m writing this) and found nothing corresponding to the article. 

Finally, I searched the desktop of my previous laptop.  The summary of what I quoted from the article  appeared.  That led me to the folder (“1st Vermont Cavalry”) in which I had in May 2019 downloaded individual images of each page of the article before I created my summary of the article.  I searched my emails and downloads for that period and found nothing corresponding.  I think I know who sent me the images of the article, but I haven’t received confirmation.  Therefore I intend to publish the images here in my blog so that somebody looking for my citation can verify it.

The moral of the story is immediately to include any document’s origin whenever it is footnoted.  This article will be cited as posted in johnhorncivilwarauthor.blogspot.com, August 17, 2023.  It has long been in the public domain.