Your Affectionate Father, Charles F. Smith Paperback - 2016

Allen Mesch is an author, educator, and historian. He taught at the University of Texas at Dallas, Southern Methodist University, and Texas Woman's University. He was Director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University where he developed the Institute's innovative Oil and Gas Education Initiative and other outreach programs. Allen has extensive experience in both technical and management positions with major multinational petroleum companies. He published papers on trends in the oil and gas industry and innovations in business planning and spoken at numerous professional conferences. He serves as a resource to media on oil and gas issues with appearances on local and national television and quotes in business publications ranging from The Oil & Gas Journal to Business Week. Allen teaches continuing education classes on the Civil War in Collin College's SAIL program. He shares his 4,000-plus photographs from over 132 Civil War sites on his web site Civil War Journeys (http: //www.civil-war-journeys.org). He also writes a blog on the Civil War called Salient Points (http: //salient-points.blogspot.com). Allen is the author of Teacher of Civil War Generals: Major General Charles Ferguson Smith Soldier and West Point Commandant, McFarland Publishers, Inc., July 2015. In 2012, Allen published a political thriller, The Analyst. He earned a master's degree in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. in chemical engineering from Clarkson University. He has extensive course work in business and management from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Houston. When not visiting Civil War battlefields or building sand castles on South Padre Island, Allen likes to fly fish and travel. He is married with two children and six grandchildren.