On New Year’s Eve 1861, William Lott Davidson (Bill to his friends) was huddled around a campfire outside the adobe walls of Fort Bliss, a Confederate installation north of the Rio Grande in far western Texas. He and his fellow soldiers in Company A of the 5th Texas were recovering from their march . . .
Read MoreWhen I started thinking about this project, I knew I wanted to begin The Three-Cornered War with the Confederate invasion of New Mexico Territory in July 1861. That meant starting with John Robert Baylor. Baylor was born in Kentucky in 1822 and lived much of his early life in Indian Territory, the son of . . .
Read MoreAlong with chocolate frosted donuts at the local pool (a treat after swim lessons), road trips were the defining events of my childhood summers. My mother was not a fan of airplanes and so every August we would pile into the car before dawn on a Saturday and head out across the . . .
Read MoreWhy do so few historians talk about the American Civil War in the West? And by “the West” I don’t mean the trans-Mississippi. I mean the vast stretches of high desert and the extensive mountain ranges west of the 100th meridian, where elevation and aridity make everything a bit more difficult: breathing, . . .
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