The Three-Cornered War

A dramatic,rivetingand ΓÇ£fresh look at a region typically obscured in accounts of the Civil War. American history buffs will relish this entertaining and eye-opening portraitΓÇ¥ (Publishers Weekly). Megan Kate Nelson ΓÇ£expands our understanding of how the Civil War affected Indigenous peoples and helped to shape the nationΓÇ¥ (Library Journalstarred review)reframing the era as one of national conflictΓÇöinvolving not just the North and Southbut also the West. Against the backdrop of this larger series of battlesNelson introduces nine individuals: John R. Baylora Texas legislator who established the Confederate Territory of Arizona; Louisa Hawkins Canbya Union Army wife who nursed Confederate soldiers back to health in Santa Fe; James Carletona professional soldier who engineered campaigns against Navajos and Apaches; Kit Carsona famous frontiersman who led a regiment of volunteers against the TexansNavajosKiowasand Comanches; Juanitaa Navajo weaver who resisted Union campaigns against her people; Bill Davidsona soldier who fought in all of the ConfederacyΓÇÖs major battles in New Mexico; Alonzo Ickisan Iowa-born gold miner who fought on the side of the Union; John Clarka friend of Abraham LincolnΓÇÖs who embraced the Republican vision for the West as New MexicoΓÇÖs surveyor-general; and Mangas Coloradasa revered Chiricahua Apache chief who worked to expand Apache territory in Arizona. As we learn how these nine charismatic individuals fought for self-determination and control of the regionwe also see the importance of individual actions in the midst of a larger military conflict. Based on letters and diariesmilitary records and oral historiesand photographs and maps from the timeΓÇ£this history of invasionsbattlesand forced migration shapes the United States to this dayΓÇöand has never been told so wellΓÇ¥ (Pulitzer PrizeΓÇôwinning author T.J. Stiles).