Edward T. Cotham, a former president of the Houston Civil War Round Table, published his third book in January of 2006.  The book is The Southern Journey of a Civil War Marine: The Illustrated Note-Book of Henry O. Gusley (University of Texas Press $24.95).  Gusley was a United States Marine  who served in the Gulf squadron during the Civil War.  He kept a journal, quite well written, of the campaigns he took part in -- which included the capture of New Orleans and the Union defeats at Galveston and Sabine Pass.

Late in the war, the Confederates captured Gusley and imprisoned him in Texas.  They took his journal from him.  While Gusley was in the prison camp, he picked up a Galveston newspaper that was printing excerpts from his journal.  He wrote and asked for a subscription.  The paper wrote back and granted him a free subscription, since the paper was ripping off his work.  The journal itself has disappeared.  Gusley himself died shortly after the end of the war.

Through the suggestion of Harry Bounds, another member of the Houston Round Table, Ed Cotham discovered a collection of drawings -- never before published -- by Dr. Daniel Nestell, who served in the same Union flotilla as Gusley.  The drawings illustrate much of the journal.  As Cotham describes it, the combination is like having picture postcards from the Civil War in Texas and Louisiana.

For more information about this book and others that Ed has written go to www.edcotham.com.