I immediately began working on volume two and Catty took up her sewing again. She also resumed her visits to Barbara’s workshop; again I heard detailed accounts of my former sweetheart’s progress. HX-1 was to be completed in the late spring, or early summer. I was not surprised at Barbara’s faith surviving actual construction of the thing, but that such otherwise level-headed people as Ace and Catty could envisage breathlessly the miracles about to happen was beyond me. Ace, even after all these years, was still bemused—but Catty ...? Just before the turn of the year I got the following letter: LEE & WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY Department of History Leesburg, District of Calhounia, CSA. December 19, 1951 Mr. Hodgins M. Backmaker “Haggershaven” York, Pennsylvania, USA. _Sir_: _On page 407 of_ Chancellorsville to the End, _volume I_, Turning Tides, _you write, “Chronology and topography—timing and the use of space—were to be the decisive factors, rather than population and industry. Stuart’s detachment, which might have proved disastrous, turned out extraordinarily fortunate for Lee, as we shall see in the next volume. Of course the absence of cavalry might have been decisive if the Round Tops had not been occupied by the Southrons on July 1....”_ _Now, sir, evidently in your forthcoming analysis of Gettysburg you hold (as I presume most Yankees do) to the theory of fortuitousness. We Southrons naturally ascribe the victory to the supreme genius of General Lee, regarding the factors of time and space not as forces in themselves but as opportunities for the display of his talents._ _Needless to say, I hardly expect you to change your opinions, rooted as they must be in national pride. I only ask that before you commit them, and the conclusions shaped by them, to print, you satisfy yourself as an historian, of their validity in this particular case. In other words, sir, as one of your readers (and may I add, one who has enjoyed your work), I should like to be assured that you have studied this classic battle as carefully as you have the engagements described in volume I._ _With earnest wishes for your success, I remain, sir Cordially yours, Jefferson Davis Polk_ This letter from Dr Polk, the foremost historian of our day, author of the monumental biography, _The Great Lee_, produced a crisis in my life. Had the Confederate professor pointed out flaws in my work, or even reproached me for undertaking it at all without adequate equipment I would, I trust, have acknowledged the reproof and continued to the best of my ability. But this letter was an accolade. Without condescension Dr Polk admitted me to the ranks of serious historians, only asking me to consider the depth of my evaluation.