dudley cornish taught a state teacher's college in kansas. and because of the lack of travel funds when he wrote the book, "the sable arm" was researched and written before sputnik even. his main reliance, cornish's main reliance, was on the official records, the "new york times" on microfilm, and trips to the kansas state historical society. he visited the national archives enough to consult some colored troops bureau material in the adjutant general's records but that was about it. i discovered a couple of years later when i was in the middle of the manuscript the answer to my question why. at that point i was writing about the raising of black regiments in the north and had come to the presentation of regimental colors to the 20th u.s. colored infantry in new york city. and that regiment taking ship for louisiana. now, cornish uses this incident and a long quote from the "new york times" that appeared the next day in the times. only eight months after the "new york times" draft he wrote "soldiers fully armed was headed for the theater of wa