Author: Alvin M. Josephy, Jr. In the historical panorama of the American Civil War, the Trans-Mississippi West usually receives scant attention. Written off as a "sideshow", many Civil War historians depict the Trans- Mississippi West as an area that held little strategic import and only served to draw off resources from more crucial theatres. Alvin Josephy's work represents an attempt to rectify such erroneous concepts. Josephy posits that these campaigns and events that transpired in the West held greater significance than that which is normally accorded them. Josephy divides his book into five sections which address the Confederate forays into the New Mexico Territory, the Sioux uprising in Minnesota, Nathaniel Banks' mismanaged campaigns in Louisiana and Texas, the pacification of Indian tribes from Colorado to California and the Confederate/Indian campaigns that scored the countryside of Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. The author argues that while the military endeavors in the Far West required the use of few fighting men, the gold and silver reserves dug found their way into the Union coffers went far in crushing the Southern rebellion. California and Nevada provided over two hundred million dollars in specie, and gold was discovered in the newly Arizona Territory at this time. Henry Sibley's New Mexico campaign, the strong secessionist sentiments in California and Oregon, the disaffection of the Mormons and the Union's brutal Indian policies all combined to pose a true threat to the Union's hold on this part of the country. These same short sighted policies toward the Indians resulted in the Sioux uprising in Minnesota (August, 1862). This uprising, which took over two years to quell, featured the greatest slaying of white settlers by Indians and the largest mass execution by the government in the history of the nation. The end result was the thorough disruption of Minnesota's support of the Union War effort. Josephy goes into great detail to describe Banks' Red River campaign of 1864 and Earl Van Dom's Pea Ridge campaign of 1862. Both offered large strategic gains and both ended in failure. Banks, in tandem with Fredrick Steele marching down from Little Rock, possessed a force large enough to remove all of Louisiana and a considerable portion of east Texas from the confederacy. Although his men laid waste to much of central Louisiana, Richard Taylor foiled the invasion while Banks insured that a Union Spring offensive against Mobile would not take place. Van Dorn's campaign in Arkansas represented a very real threat to St. Louis and its capture would have seriously weakened and diverted the Union war effort. For Josephy, the genesis for his book came after he wrote The War on the Frontier, a volume on the Trans- Mississippi West for the Time-Life Civil War series. A noted historian of the American Indian, he currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. Along with demonstrating the strategic significance of the American West in the Civil War, the author strives to show that westward expansion continued and even increased in brutality as frontier policemen and soldiers found Confederate provocateurs under every rock. They used this reason to intensify their efforts at lndian pacification that often resulted in outright genocide of the native population. The Sand Creek Massacre represented just one of the many egregious outrages inflicted on Indian bands who forswore any warlike intentions against the government at Washington D.C. Because of this most disagreeable chapter in American history, Josephy takes a sympathetic stance with the Indians and it reflects also in his attitude towards the South. While his narrative maintains a generally balanced tone, Josephy portrays the Confederates in a slightly more positive light because of their more accommodating approach to the Indians. Although it was based on the exigencies of war and despite the presence of rabid Indian- haters like John Baylor, the Indians received better treatment at the hands of the Southerners. This book holds much for a wide audience, for Josephy has produced that rarest of combinations - a readable scholarly work. His laudable research will serve well anyone using his book to further their own studies, while his lively writing style will entertain the casual reader. This work will add considerably to one's knowledge of the American Civil War as a whole and it admirably serves as a break from the endless re-fightings of the campaigns around Richmond, Virginia. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991. Pp. xiv, 445) Back to The Zouave Vol VI No. 4 Table of Contents Back to The Zouave List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1992 The American Civil War Society This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com