Customer Reviews

Dangerous Passage: The Santa Fe Trail and the Mexican War

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Mr. Chalfont has provided a truly an outstanding and original contribution to knowledge on the Mexican War of 1846-1848. Often under reported by many authors who concentrate on the more famous actions south of the Rio Grande, the campaign to secure the Santa Fe Trail was crucially important to President Polk's wider efforts at expanding the boundaries of the United States. Presaging by decades the later Indian Wars, the Santa Fe Trail between 1846 and 1848 saw some of the first concerted efforts by the US Government to utilize its military forces in the preservation of an economic pipeline. The author has also avoided the tendency of many "specialists" to present his research as a litany of dull facts. He has opted instead to relate history as a sequence of connected narratives that succeeds in conveying the flavor of the times as well as the historical substance. Replete with excellent photos and maps, I highly recommend this book to anyone with a serious interest in this important conflict.

In most histories of the War with Mexico, the part played by the Santa Fe Trail is given only a passing glance. So is the part played by the State of Missouri. In this well detailed book, William Y. Chalfant sets the record straight.

Stretching 800 miles through Indian country from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Santa Fe Trail played many parts during the western campaign of the War with Mexico: invasion thoroughfare, resupply route and strategic asset. The conquest of Mexico was a difficult military operation, made more difficult yet by the lack of communication, the vast distances involved, the logistical requirements of not one but two invasion campaigns and the necessary protection required to secure the Army's economic pipeline.

Mr. Chalfant does a very credible job of detailing the evolving role of the Santa Fe Trail and the US Army's response to defending this important lifeline during the Mexican War.