One of the things I enjoy most about blogging is that it puts me in contact with people I would not otherwise normally encounter (as opposed to Eric Wittenberg: Eric and I knew each other and had worked together before we became bloggers). Someone whose blog deserves a lot of attention is Andy Hall and his Dead Confederates blog, precisely because of the research findings he shares. Several months ago Andy posted some very interesting information concerning the Confederate monument at Arlington Cemetery, effectively challenging arguments that it included representations of a black Confederate soldier. Now comes this post, in which Andy researches the claims that one Richard Quarls was a black Confederate soldier. The closest I’ll get to a spoiler alert is to share with you that things are not quite what they seem, and in fact are far more complex that originally thought.
Read Dead Confederates. You’ll learn something.
Crossroads 