ASHLAND — John David Preston takes delight in locating lost details of local Civil War history.
While researching his latest book, a second edition of his 1984 publication “The Civil War in the Big Sandy Valley of Kentucky,” Preston pored over original muster rolls and nearly forgotten microfilm records to better develop the historical picture of eastern Kentucky’s Civil War soldiers. He becomes almost animated as he describes the experience of hand copying information including each area soldier’s eye color, hair color and dates of service from highly fragile original military documents preserved from 1864.
“It does not get any better than that,” he said, pausing between each word for emphasis, soon describing the tedious process of copying information regarding 750 militia soldiers from Louisa and Johnson County as “a labor of love.”
The latest edition of his book, with 520 pages, reveals a wealth of knowledge discovered since the 180-page first edition was printed.
“I sold out of the first edition in about a year and a half and had a steady stream of people asking about it since,” Preston said Saturday during a book signing at the Jesse Stuart Foundation in Ashland. “I said I was going to do a second edition one of these days. Now it is those days.”
In many ways, the new book was born of research and queries started by the first edition, Preston said.
“There is a tremendous amount more of available material than we knew about in 1984,” he said, explaining those materials allowed him to develop comprehensive lists of soldiers from the Big Sandy Valley, generally recognized as Lawrence, Johnson, Martin, Floyd and Pike counties, as well as men from parts of adjacent counties.
For anyone seeking the name of a relative who fought in the Civil War, Preston said the depth of information can be overwhelming when discovered.
“You can’t imagine how good that makes you feel,” he observed.
There are 1,200 footnotes in the book, Preston said.
“I want people to know those sources,’ he said. “And some of the best stuff is in the footnotes.”
Much of Preston’s book focuses on the reasons local residents signed up to fight for either the Union or Confederate cause, or both.
“In this area loyalty was a mile wide and an inch deep,” he said with a smile, citing a member of his own family whose documents clearly show he signed up to fight for one side, then soon deserted and joined the ranks of the opposition.
“It is an unanswerable question,” he said, explaining people in neighboring counties drew their conflicting military motivations from different events and attitudes, but essentially did what they felt was best for their own families.
Copies of Preston’s book are available at the Jesse Stuart Foundation at the corner of Winchester Avenue and 17th Street in Ashland.
TIM PRESTON can be reached at tpreston@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2651.
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