"Tensas Doctor" manuscripts and research material

File — Box: W0003.01

Scope and Contents

From the Collection: This collection includes correspondence, research notes, newspaper clippings, and unpublished manuscripts related to two works written by Wallace Marshall of Mobile, Alabama. The first manuscript, "Tensas Doctor," is an unpublished novella documenting the life of William Stoddard, a doctor and early resident of Blakeley, Alabama, and his wife, Lavinia Stone Stoddard. The research materials focus on the Stoddards, early Alabama history, and yellow fever. The Stoddards both died, presumably from yellow fever, within a few years of moving to Blakeley.

The second manuscript, "Noise of Great Waters," is a history of Civil War Mobile. The manuscript has a few minor edits written in pencil and includes maps, reproductions of Civil War illustrations, and pen and ink illustrations drawn by Louis Hubbard. "Noise of Great Waters" was commissioned by Cameron Plummer, a Mobile bookseller and owner of the Haunted Bookshop. Plummer intended to publish the history in 1961 to coincide with the Civil War centennial. Wallace completed the manuscript, but publications arrangements for the book were never finalized before his death. This manuscript, which contains a detailed account of the Battle of Mobile Bay and the city's larger role in the Civil War, is the only known copy of Marshall's work.