From Booklist
Long before secession, southern politicians dreamed of a slave empire reaching deep into Latin America. Frazier's superbly written work examines how that dream played out in the cauldron of the Civil War. Here there were no great set-piece battles with huge foraging armies slaughtering each other, as in the East. Rather, relatively small numbers of men stalked each other over huge expanses of virtually uninhabited land, where marauding Apaches often posed as great a threat as the opposing army. To some historians, the campaigns in Arizona and New Mexico were a minor sideshow. Yet, as Frazier illustrates, the stakes were enormous; in particular, a Confederate victory in this theater could have put all of the Pacific Coast at the Confederacy's disposal. Frazier has done an outstanding job of illuminating a relatively obscure aspect of the Civil War, and his work should appeal to both the history buff and those general readers who appreciate epic but futile adventures. Jay Freeman
Review
"Frazier convincingly demonstrates that Union commander Edward R. S. Canby deserves more respect than he sometimes gets from historians for his part in driving Confederate armies out of New Mexico and Arizona. He also shows how Confederate General Henry Hopkins Sibley and Confederate Colonel John Robert Baylor--the two expansionist dreamers most responsible for the Confederacy''s southwestern initiatives--had personal flaws which sabotaged the very territorial gains which they accomplished. His manuscript is sensitive to Confederate relations with Hispanics, and integrates Confederate campaigns against Apache tribes into his Civil War story. Many readers will appreciate Frazier''s meticulous descriptions of camp life, soldiering in the arid Southwest, the battles of Val Verde, Apache Canyon, Glorieta and Peralta, and especially the backgrounds, motives, and personalities of the officers and soldiers involved in the Confederate campaigns for empire. One could not ask for a more engaging treatment from the Confederate perspective of the Civil War in the Southwest.”--Robert E. May, author of The Southern Dream of a Caribbean Empire, 1854-1861
(Robert E. May, author of The Southern Dream of a Caribbean Empi )
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
