Marketing “Rough Enough” – How I got started on the book!

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Richard H. McBee Jr.

The Civil War is a lifelong compulsion for some persons so in that respect I an a Ricky-come-lately having only really gotten interested in 1994 while discussing with my then dying father some of the papers and letters he wanted to leave to me. These included several small boxes of papers from his own mother and father as well as a box from his grandfather, Richard Clow. The box was a gold mine of material, including a knife used by Richard during the Civil War, a cup, fork, powder horn, and some letters in their original envelopes with stamps unfortunately torn off by my father during his budding stamp collecting days. In addition there was a small diary which became the mystery booklet that kept me working on research for over ten years. Its cryptic notes, old song verses, Spanish sections and lists of ducks killed and people met, carried me from Fort Buford, ND to Little Sioux, IA and then back through Cheyenne, WY to Deadwood, SD and the gold mines. Ultimately I followed his track onto Montpelier, ID, Granite, OR and then to Mapleton, OR and the little museum in Florence which has a large picture of Richard Clow and his wife Linnie,(Story) Clow in the first room. Wow! A lot of miles, and thumbing through papers in museums and court houses to find all the materials. Along the way I was reading every Civil War book on the Petersburg, VA area and then took a trip out to walk the battlefields. Amazing!