Customer Reviews

Sam Bell Maxey and the Confederate Indians (Civil War Campaigns and Commanders Series)

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Having the good fortune of hearing John C. Waugh at the Austin Civil War Roundtable, I discovered this series "Civil War Campaigns and Commanders." They tend to be rather short, an evening's read...on less frequently treated topics that are quite intriguing. This volume tells the history of battles and participants in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the War of Northern Aggression, with an emphasis on the participation of the "civilized" Indian tribes, mostly located in Oklahoma (Indian Territory), their commanders, and the passing through western commands of many "failures" in eastern theatres of the war.

This book includes brief biographies (about 1.5 to two pages) of many interesting officers (Stand Watie, Sam Bell Maxey, Albert Pike, Douglas H. Cooper)--many who were born early in the 1800s, some West Point graduates prior to the beknighted Class of 1846 (which included Thomas J. Jackson), some of whom lived until late in the 19th century and saw America go from the ascendancy of the cotton gin to the Industrial Age!

With great accompanying photos, clear maps, and great storytelling, this book will leave you wanting to learn more about this rather neglected region of the war, but one no less important in many regards for the defining of the nation's future than the more well-known battlefields of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Highly recommended!!!!

A side of the civil war in the west that you don't hear about. It is nice to read about the Confederat side in the west. The confederates did treat the indians lots better than the Union side. An excellent story.