The Civil War in Arizona: The Story of the California Volunteers, 1861-1865 (review)

For many historians and Civil War enthusiasts, the far western theater of the war was simply a sideshow—a place of abandoned Confederate hopes and sporadic Union frontier fighting. But in The Civil War in Arizona: The Story of the California Volunteers, 1861–1865, Andrew E. Masich tells the dynamic story of California volunteers in Arizona Territory who not only helped blunt Confederate plans to extend a corridor from Texas to the Pacific but also helped prepare Arizona for statehood by bringing socializing influences into the region.

Masich's book does effective double duty. While the first half of the book is highly readable historical narrative, the second is a compilation of correspondence from the California volunteers back home. The correspondence, which Masich has culled from the pages of the Daily Alta California, forms an excellent primary source for researchers.

Masich's thesis is two-fold. First, the war in Arizona—while devoid of the set-piece battles that characterized the Eastern Theater—was nonetheless militarily important. And, second, the influence of the California volunteers assigned to Arizona helped prepare that place for territorial status by invigorating its economy, building an infrastructure, and, in some cases, actually settling in the region. Masich adequately proves both.

Brig. Gen. James H. Carleton's Californians did not fight a major battle against Confederates. (The Confederacy's major attempt to grab the Southwest failed at the battle of Glorieta Pass in New Mexico in 1862.) Nevertheless, Carleton understood that his mission included building a bulwark in the Southwest against any further Confederate attempts and firmly marking Arizona Territory with the stamp of American federalism. In the process, Carleton also defended the region from Apache raids, and his men kept an eye on imperialist troops in Mexico under French puppet Maximilian I. The Californians won praise from U.S. General-in-Chief Henry Halleck, who lamented that many eastern troops had not "the endurance of the California troops" (p. 54).

In garrisoning Arizona Territory, Masich says the Californians became "agents of change" (p. 5). These men not only protected the territory but built it as well. They instituted mail service, encouraged businesses and entrepreneurship, often intermarried with Native Americans in the region, and installed a rudimentary judicial system. In short, they were socializing Arizona Territory in the likeness of California and the United States. That process went a long way toward grooming the territory for statehood.

Masich, who is both an academic historian and a museum director, brings the latter profession's practiced eye for popular history to this work. Noting that Carleton "realized that the expedition across miles of uncharted Arizona desert . . . would only be successful if he could properly equip his men" (p. 19), Masich develops a nice section about the Californians' gear. He ably describes the muskets, carbines, pistols, uniforms, tack, and rations that the volunteers took with them. The section is well complemented with photographs, and it gives a good sense of both Carleton's organizational skill and his men's abilities.

Masich is also, at times, quite literary. For instance, the start of this book is no boring academic treatise. Setting the stage for the deadly skirmish at Picacho Pass in April 1862, Masich describes Lt. James Barrett with "his black army hat shad[ing] his pale gray eyes as he scanned the northern horizon, and the countryside where an astonishing variety of cacti—barrels, chollas, prickly pears, saguaros—grew miraculously from the rocky soil" (p. 3). Such writing harkens back to the Civil War narrative tradition of Bruce Catton and Shelby Foote.

This is an excellent book about an often-overlooked area of the Civil War. Highly recommended.