Steamboats guided Robert Gudmestad to his book on a Union Navy squadron

Robert Gudmestad is a professor of history at Colorado State University. Besides his book on the Mississippi River Squadron, he has published material about Mississippi River steamboats, the domestic slave trade, a baseball team in 1880s Richmond, and how professional football has been used to promote patriotic values.

SunLit: “The Devil’s Own Purgatory” explores perhaps a lesser known part of Civil War history. What was the Union’s Mississippi River Squadron and what was its significance? 

Robert Gudmestad: It was a fleet of 127 boats in the Union Navy that roamed the Mississippi River and some of its tributaries. Most of the boats had iron armor, but a few had thick wooden planking for protection. The fleet was an essential partner with the Army in winning the war. It captured Confederate forts, destroyed the small Confederate Navy, protected Union supply lines, and suppressed guerrillas.

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Each week, The Colorado Sun and Colorado Humanities & Center For The Book feature an excerpt from a Colorado book and an interview with the author. Explore the SunLit archives at coloradosun.com/sunlit.

SunLit: What drew you to this period of history, and to this Union military unit in particular? 

Gudmestad: I’ve always been fascinated with the Civil War, perhaps because I remember visiting Gettysburg when I was 5. My parents bought me the “American Heritage” history of the Civil War and I read it several times. I always expected to write about the Civil War and when I finished my book on Mississippi River steamboats, it seemed natural to write about the Mississippi Squadron. 

SunLit: Your book is part of an expansive series called “Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War.” Tell us about that project and how your book fits into the mix.

Gudmestad: When I started the research, I assumed I would write a book similar to what already existed. But, as I got into the research, I kept finding references to the boats engaged in a war against guerrillas. As I kept looking, I realized that no historian had told this aspect of the war, even though the men of the Mississippi Squadron spent the majority of their time fighting guerrillas.

When I learned that the muster rolls were scanned and online, I thought it would be a good idea to use them to compile a dataset. With the help of student researchers, I compiled a dataset of over 14,000 sailors. There is an amazing array of demographic information in it. No one has done this scale of research into Civil War sailors or soldiers. And I also stumbled upon how the fleet helped free thousands of enslaved people. All of those aspects are new dimensions of the Civil War.

SunLit: You’ve mentioned that this project gave you the opportunity to do spatial analysis, or historical GIS, to understand the nature of the conflict. How did that work, and how did your findings translate to your book?

Gudmestad: I started the spatial analysis when a colleague at a conference heard me give a short presentation on my research and said, “You should do GIS.” He was right. I learned that the combat was spread along a wide range of space. There were some places, like Greenwood, Mississippi, that witnessed a lot of fighting because of the river’s geography. There was no “aha” moment, but the spatial analysis undergirds most of the book’s assumptions.

SunLit: You’ve written on a fascinating array of historical topics, including steamboats, slavery, the South and sports in America. How would you describe the range of interests that inspire your research and writing?

Gudmestad: I’ve stumbled into a lot of them. I wrote about the slave trade because, in graduate school at the University of Richmond, I needed a topic that had sources nearby. I chose the Richmond slave market. That topic expanded into my dissertation and, later, first book. My article about a baseball team in Richmond occurred because my advisor knew that I liked baseball and he suggested that I write about the team. I chose to write about steamboats because I was preparing for a new class and needed lecture material about steamboats. I discovered that the best book on southern steamboats was written when Harry Truman was president. I guess you could say I am the Forrest Gump of the historical profession.

SunLit: As a history professor at Colorado State University, you also employed student researchers to help learn about the Mississippi River Squadron. What did they discover and how did you incorporate it into “The Devil’s Own Purgatory”?

Gudmestad: They helped so much in compiling the dataset I mentioned earlier. I’m not sure they discovered anything I did not know, because I recorded the majority of entries in the dataset. I can say, though, that the student researchers gained valuable research and analytical skills. I met with them individually to talk about the research and also had an annual end-of-the-semester lunch (where I cooked homemade Cajun food). We talked about what they learned about the sailors and also what they learned about the historical process. A couple of them said it strengthened their successful applications to graduate school. One student got a job as a historical researcher and has co-written a couple of articles. Another student applied for a job that required him to read nineteenth-century cursive writing — something he learned doing research for me. I’m co-writing an article with another student researcher. He just started his PhD program at USC.

SunLit: You teach a capstone course at CSU called American Sports History and wrote a magazine article that looked at baseball in the South through the lens of the Civil War. What is it about the topic of sports, in a historical context, that you find interesting?

Gudmestad: I also have online stories about the NFL’s promotion of patriotism and about Hank Greenberg, baseball’s first Jewish star. A lot of people love sports and it can tell us a lot about society. Baseball, for example, can be used to discuss the changes in racial perceptions and race relations in America. It can also be used to look at changes to the American economy. I think it says something about our country that football has become our favorite sport, even though it has almost no connection with the rest of the world. 

SunLit: What’s next for you, from a book-writing standpoint?

Gudmestad: I’ve started a project that will compare the First and Second Minnesota regiments in the Civil War. The First was in the Eastern Theater and big battles like Antietam and Gettysburg. The Second was in the Western Theater and marched thousands of miles before fighting at Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge. My crazy dream is to create a companion website that has lots of cool stuff, like blog posts about stuff that didn’t make it into the book, an interactive map of the regiments’ locations every day of the war, and other things.

A few more quick items

Currently on your nightstand for recreational reading: Larry McMurtry, “Lonesome Dove”

First book you remember really making an impression on you as a kid: “American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War”

Best writing advice you’ve ever received:  Write every day. Once you get into that habit, your mind will keep working even when you are not writing. That’s when you get flashes of insight.

Favorite fictional literary character: Aragorn from “Lord of the Rings”

Literary guilty pleasure (title or genre): World War II military history

Digital, print or audio – favorite medium to consume literature: Print

One book you’ve read multiple times: John Steinbeck, “Of Mice and Men”

Other than writing utensils, one thing you must have within reach when you write: A pet — either my cat or dog (or both).

Best antidote for writer’s block: Get up and go on a walk.

Most valuable beta reader: Joe Creighton