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.”