Andrew E. Masich

This is, to borrow from English football commentators, a book of two halves. The first is a narrative of the War of the Rebellion in Arizona Territory, and the second is a collection of narratives by the soldiers themselves which appeared in a San Francisco newspaper. These accounts are largely turgid and uninteresting, should have been relegated to an appendix, and are in any case more about mining than anything remotely military. As for the author's own words, they are the product of some great research which will be of considerable use to researchers (as will the soldiers' stories). However, since actual Union vs. Confederate military action consisted of a handful of skirmishes, this is mostly a book about Indian fighting, occupation policy, military government, and logistics. In other words, few will be terribly interested in the weight of the Union field pack, the optimal shape of a cavalryman's scabbard, or comparisons of the weights of pistol and rifle balls.… (meer)