The A. M. Pate, Jr. Award in Civil War History is presented each year by the Fort Worth Civil War Round Table. The Award is given for outstanding original research on the Trans-Mississippi sector (including Kansas and Missiouri) of the Civil War. To be considered a book must have been published in the last 24 months. A group of members of the Fort Worth CWRT are involved in the Selection Committee.
Winners of the Award receive $1,000 and are honored in a presentation in Fort Worth. All travel costs for the recipient are covered by the Fort Worth CWRT.
The Award is named in honor of the late A. M. Pate, Jr. - a Fort Worth businessman and philanthropist. "Aggie" Pate was involved in many history related activities including the founding of the Pate Museum of Transportation and the Fort Worth Civil War Round Table. He had a strong interest in encouraging research and scholarship and supported a number of institutions of higher learning including Texas Christian University and Texas Wesleyan.
Past winners of the Pate Award include Donald S. Frazier for his book Blood and Treasure: Confederate Empire in the Southwest, Gary D. Joiner for his book One Damn Blunder from Beginning to End: The Red River Campaign in 1864, Jerry Thompson and Lawrence T. Jones III for their book Civil War and Revolution on the Rio Grande Frontier: A Narrative and Photographic History, Steven Mayeux for his book Earthen Walls, Iron Men: Fort DeRussy, Louisiana, and the Defense of the Red River and Stephen Dupree for his book Planting the Union Flag in Texas: The Campaigns of Major General Nathaniel P. Banks in the West.
Entries for the 2010 Award should be received no later than September 30, 2010
Four copies of books submitted should be sent to:
Mr. Jim Rosenthal
c/o Tex-Air Filters
5757 E. Rosedale
Fort Worth, TX. 76112
For more information, send email to jimrosenthal5757@aol.com.
The Pate Award Committee of the Fort Worth Civil War Round Table is proud to announce that The Seventh Star of the Confederacy: Texas During the Civil War edited by Kenneth Howell has been awarded the Pate Award for 2009.
This anthology with 18 contributing authors incorporates the latest scholarly research on how Texans experienced the War. Chapters cover topics from how Texas entered the War to what Texans were confronted with in combat and on the homefront. Also explored are well-known battles that took place in or near Texas, such as the Battle of Galveston, the Battle of Nueces, the Battle of Sabine Pass and the Red River Campaign.
Past Pate Award Winner, Professor Jerry Thompson of Texas A&M International University, had this to say of the book:
"Howell has managed to gather eighteen of the very best Texas Civil War historians for this fine publication that is certain to attract considerable attention. It surpasses similar edited versions of the the war in Texas and may well be one fo the very best books on the subject."
And this from Andrew Wagenhofer of Civil War Books and Authors:
"This is the best Texas essay compilation I have ever read. It is really one of the best anthologies on any Civil War subject in recent years. It is broad and detailed with no real weaknesses among the chapters."
Chapters include:
"The Impact of New Studies about Texas and Texans on Civil War Historiography" by Alwyn Barr
"The Civil War and the Lone Star State: A Brief Overview" by Archie P. McDonald
"The Impending Crisis: A Texan Perspective on the Causes of the Civil War" by James M. Smallwood
"The Knights of the Golden Circle in Texas, 1858-1861: An Analysis of the First (Military) Degree Knights" by Linda S. Hudson
"Frontier Defense: Enlistment Patterns for The Texas Frontier Regiments in the Civil War" by John W. Gorman
"Reckoning at the River: Unionists and Secessionists on the Nueces, August 10, 1862" by Mary Jo O'Rear
"Without a Fight: The Eighty-four-day Union Occupation of Galveston, Texas" by Donald Willett
"Nothing but Disaster: The Failure of Union Plans to Capture Texas" by Edward Cottam
"Hide your Daughters: The Yankees Have Arrived at the Coastal Bend" by Charles D. Spurlin
"Defending the Lone Star: The Texas Cavalry in the Red River Campaign" by Gary Joiner
"Prison City, Camp Ford: Largest Confederate Prisoner-of-war Camp in the Trans-Mississippi" by James Smallwood
"The Confederate Governors of Texas" by Kenneth Hendrickson, Jr.
"A Sacred Charge upon Our Hands: Assisting the Families of Confederate Soldiers in Texas, 1861-1865" by Vicki Betts
"On the Edge of First Freedoms: Black Texans and the Civil War" By Ronald Goodwin and Bruce Glasrud
"Feed the Troops or Fight the Drought: The Dilemma Texas Beef Contractors Faced in 1861-1865" by Carol Taylor
"Distress, Discontent, and Dissent: Colorado County, Texas, during the Civil War" by Bill Stein
Kenneth Howell will be receiving the Pate Award for the book. However, each of these authors made a major contribution. It was the feeling of the Committee that this book represented the very essence of the original research that the Award is intended to encourage.
For more information, send email to jimrosenthal5757@aol.com.
Dr. Stephen Dupree is the winner of the 2008 A. M. Pate, Jr. Award in Civil War History for his book Planting the Union Flag in Texas: The Campaigns of Major General Nathaniel P. Banks in the West. The award winner was chosen by a Committee of Fort Worth Civil War Round Table members.
Planting the Union Flag in Texas examines the five attempts by Banks and his forces to capture Texas for the Union. These began with the capture and loss of Galveston in 1862-1863, followed by the debacle at Sabine Pass, an invasion of Texas from Southwestern Louisiana, an amphibious assault on Southern Texas (which succeeded) and the ill-fated Red River Campaign. In most works these attempts at taking Texas are looked at as independent events. Through the work of the author we see how these events were all part of a unified campaign.
The book is the culmination of 10 years of research and writing by Dupree. Archie McDaniel in a review of the work states:
"The author's efforts remind us that the Civil War is not the exclusive preserve of the trained academic. Indeed Dupree's formal training in the field of nuclear engineering and career at Sandia National Laboratories is a long way from the muddy bayou bottoms of Louisiana or the numerous waterways into Texas that Banks explored, but obviously he is as expert in one field as the other. Like many enthusiasts, or "buffs," Dupree has studied and thought more about this topic than any "teaching" historian."
Here is what 2006 Pate Award Winner, Jerry Thompson, had to say about the book:
"Planting the Union Flag in Texas may be the most significant study yet produced of Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks's complex and ambitious designs on Texas. Illuminating, impressively researched, and engaging, Dupree's fine work is likely to delight anyone interested in the history of the Civil War in the Lone Star State. The book is highly recommended."
Don Frazier, another Pate Award winner, was just as complimentary:
"Stephen Dupree's Planting the Union Flag in Texas does two things remarkably well. It brings a fresh look to an important theater of America's bloodiest conflict, and it also answers the age-old question, 'Why did Texas matter in the Civil War?' The author waves this narrative with style and flair and presents an important contribution to the field."
A carefully researched, well written book on a little known part of the Civil War in the Trans-Mississippi.
The story in narrative and photographs of the Civil War in Texas on the border.
Nathaniel Banks is repulsed in his adventure up the Red River.
The story of the attempt by the Confederacy to expand westward.