Book Review: The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West by Megan Kate Nelson

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The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West by Megan Kate Nelson published by Scribner (2020). Hardcover $28.00; Kindle $14.99.

BOOK REVIEW: Meghan Kate Nelson's new book on the Civil War in the Southwest will please military history and general readers. In my review I found this a fine read.
 

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The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West by Megan Kate Nelson published by Scribner (2020). Hardcover $28.00; Kindle $14.99.

BOOK REVIEW: Meghan Kate Nelson's new book on the Civil War in the Southwest will please military history and general readers. In my review I found this a fine read.
Looks interesting.

The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West by Megan Kate Nelson published by Scribner (2020). Hardcover $28.00; Kindle $14.99.
Meghan Kate Nelson’s earlier Civil War book, Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War was distinguished both by its topical originality and its fine writing. Her new volume, The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West, is also a terrific read. It has the added virtue of being written for the general reader.​
Nelson traces the history of the Civil War years in the Southwestern territories of Arizona and New Mexico through the lenses of important participants in the conflict. Because this is a “three-cornered war,” The individuals who carry the story forward are Unionists, Confederates, and Native Americans.​
The Confederates, nearly all Texans, were fighting as much to establish Texas sovereignty over New Mexico as they were to establish a left-flank for the Confederacy. The Native Americans saw an opportunity to regain control over their own destinies as the once solid white race divided into two fratricidal factions. The Unionists were desperately trying to forge alliances with native and Latino people who had only been conquered by the United States a dozen years earlier.​
Henry Hopkins Sibley, a man you may never have heard of before, planned, organized, and led the longest and deepest Confederate invasion of Union territory. Sibley had a penchant for drink at the moments when whatever talents he had for military command were most needed. Opposing Sibley was a collection of Anglo commanders, among them the famous Kit Carson, leading mostly Latino New Mexico volunteers. The Latinos were derided as “Greasers” by the whites they would fight and die beside.​
 
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