James Herd is a native of the State of Missouri, the Author received a Bachelor's Degree in Government from the University of St. Louis in 1954. Immediately following his graduation, he was inducted into the United States Army, serving a tour of duty with the 510th Tank Battalion in Mannheim, Germany. Then, released overseas, he briefly attended the University of Innsbruck, Austria before returning to the States to study law. In 1959, he received a law degree from St. Louis University and was immediately admitted to the Missouri Bar and the Federal Bar for the Eastern District of Missouri. For the next 50 years, he served as a trial lawyer in both civil and criminal cases until his retirement from practice. Throughout his lifetime, he has remained fascinated by the historical, political, and moral issues spawned by the American Civil Way and, in particular, by Missouri's bitter role in that history. An outdoorsman, he is now retired to his family's farm in Northeast Missouri which he shares with a cat, two horses, a mule and a renegade dog named "Boots". When not entertaining family or friends and not engaged in farm related activities, he avidly studies the mounds of information stockpiled in his ever expanding Civil War Library. The Manumission of Ezra McIntosh is a product of his fascination and study.