GDG- A Question on the Bachelder papers

[Chet Diestel]

Esteemed GDG Member Bill Gower Contributes:

     I am planning to buy the complete set later this month but I have a 
question about their history.  Another book that I was reading just the 
other daysaid that Coddington should be recognized as the person who opened 
up the Bachelder papers.
    My question is did historians and other scholars not use the papers 
prior to Coddington?  Were they written and just put away somewhere and then 
rediscovered?  Were they considered out of vogue for much of the early 20th 
century?  What is the reason why Coddington is credited with opening up the 
papers?

              Bill

   I can only echo the other comments about Coddington, but then it is hard 
to underestimate his importance in opening up the study of the battle to the 
Baby Boomer generation, Indeed, it was in reading "The Campaign" that I 
first became aware of Col. John Batchelder and his contributions to the 
study of the battle and the creation of the national battlefield park.
   One thing more on Coddington: "The Campaign" is the most beautiful and 
thoroughly footnoted work of history I have ever had the luck to run across. 
The footnotes in large part make nearly as informative and lively reading as 
the text.
   Back to this post's subject matter: As a longtime owner of the Batchelder 
Papers, I can only recommend in the strongest terms that every serious 
student of the battle purchase the set for the richness of primary source 
materials.
  However, that recommendation comes with a warning label, and it is the 
same one Batchelder himself encountered: The statements of many of the 
veterans, especially as the years passed, must be taken with a grain of 
salt, if not at times the whole shaker. Batchelder found that in many cases 
the veterans' once fresh and lively memories had faded or had been, 
sometimes to a large degree, influenced by outside services, either other 
veterans or published works involving the battle. Indeed, so unreliable did 
Batchelder hold "reminiscences" that when it came to write his history of 
the battle, he relied largely on the Official Records as his source 
material.
   That being said, buy the set and enjoy a great adventure exploring 
aspects of the battle you may never have encountered before.
    With regards,
               Chet