James P. PateIndependent scholar JAMES P. PATE is an emeritus professor of history at the University of West Alabama, where he served as a department chair, dean, and vice president. He also served as a dean at Southeastern Oklahoma State, vice president at Northastern State University, and campus dean at the University of Mississippi-Tupelo. He is a graduate of Delta State University and earned an MA and PhD from Mississippi State. He has previously edited “When This Evil War is Over”: The Correspondence of the Francis Family, 1860–1865, Cherokee Newspapers, 1828–1906, and The Reminiscences of George Strother Gaines. His contributions to research, preservation, and archaeological investigations at the Fort Tombecbé/Fort Confederation complex led to the transfer of the significant eighteenth-century French-British-Spanish site to the University of West Alabama. Read More Read Less