Palazzo, Robert P.

[Militaria] [Civil War] [Manuscripts] [Maps] [Guns] Research for an Article Debunking Civil War “Hero” Archibald Hopkins by a Los Angeles Lawyer and Historian

1970-1988. [Militaria] [Civil War] [Manuscripts] [Maps] [Guns]
Research for an Article Debunking Civil War “Hero” Archibald Hopkins by a Los Angeles Lawyer and Historian

A great group of manuscripts, research materials, photographs and publications authored and collected by Los Angeles attorney and historian Robert Palazzo for an article on Civil War Colonel Archibald Hopkins. The article was published in “The Gun Report” magazine, Vol. 33, No. 11, April 1988, and a copy of the issue is present. Archive includes typed article drafts, handwritten notes, copies of archival documents, original and copy photographs, a pristine folded oversized map and publications. Most materials 8.5” x 11”, a few pages of notes 11” x 14”. All very good or better with just a touch of toning and edge wear.

Robert Palazzo was a licensed attorney for 43 years and a member of the arbitration committee for the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He taught business law for nearly 20 years at Moorpark College and was loved by his students; his obituary revealed he had an “unsurmountable” five-star rating on ratemyprofessor.com, as well as a five-star peer rating from Martindale-Hubbell, a service providing background information on lawyers and law firms. An accomplished historian, Palazzo published seven books on the history of the American West as well as a number of articles in magazines and frequently appeared on the History Channel as a documentary commentator. He died in 2019.

Per “The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography,” Archibald Hopkins was a successful Union Army Captain and company leader, commended for gallantry and earning the brevets of Major and Lieutenant Colonel for his service at Sailor’s Creek and in the final charge of the Petersburg campaign. He served to the close of the war, spent a year “engaged in caring for the freedmen” under the Reconstruction Acts, and graduated from Columbia Law School in 1867. After practicing in New York City, he became Clerk of the United States Court of Claims at Washington, DC, published “verses” and “fugitive pieces,” and served as president of the D.C. Sons of the Revolution.

Palazzo held a less celebratory view of Hopkins, informed by extensive research inspired by the discovery of the Colonel’s gun.

Palazzo’s article “Brevet Colonel A.D. Hopkins - An Unlikely Hero” appeared in the April 1988 issue of “The Gun Report,” a magazine published in Aledo, IL and “Dedicated To The Interests of Gun Enthusiasts Everywhere.” The article began: “It is always fun to read of larger-than-life military heroes and gunfighters who were destined for their stardom at an early age, about finding a marked gun and researching back the history of the brave owner to thrilling and daring deeds. It is even more fun and interesting when the true story emerges and differs from ‘accepted history’.” After some “careful digging,” Palazzo maintained that Hopkins was a coward and a deserter who became a hero only “by staying in school, getting sick, avoiding the bloodiest battles of the war, being in the right place at the right time, and foolishly overriding his position in one of the few battles he was in.”

This collection includes original typed letters on magazine letterhead, acknowledging receipt and bestowing approval of the article, as well as a copy of Palazzo’s letter that he submitted with the work: “I have been quite happy with the treatment my previous articles have received when published in THE GUN REPORT. Please feel free to edit this article as necessary.” There are five typed manuscript drafts of the article, all rich with handwritten amendments. Arguably the real richness of this collection lies in the extensive research materials Palazzo collected and notated. There are copies of Hopkins’ Personal Service Records in their original envelopes from the National Archives and a facsimile of a letter to the Provost Marshal General of the United States from the Adjutant General notifying him that Hopkins was a deserter. Palazzo made about ten pages of handwritten notes, and commented on extracts from James L. Bowen’s “History of the Thirty-Seventh Regiment Mass. Volunteers,” E.B. Long’s “The Civil War Day by Day, An Almanac 1861-1865” and “A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion” by Frederick H. Dyer. There is an excellent condition copy of “The Siege of Petersburg,” published by the Eastern National Park and Monument Association in 1970 and a near fine, folded oversize multicolor map entitled “Cockpit of the Civil War,” issued by the National Geographic Society in 1974. The collection also holds a sleeve containing nine original 5” x 7” color photographs of the star of Palazzo’s story, THE GUN, likely taken by the author himself, as well as seven B&W photo copies.

A compelling take on a Civil War leader by a noted lawyer and history enthusiast. Item #1411

Price: $250.00