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20ogBook Reviews125 from four different trials involving Henshaw. His troubled career either colored his judgment or freed him to assess national policy as well as comrades in occasionally severe tones, heedless of recrimination. Kurutz maintains an evenhanded treatment of this officer, although one detects Kurutz's shrewd regard for this cantankerous man. Henshaw's recollections may have been therapy as well as a self-interested defense of his career. Whatever his motivation, he left behind for a larger audience than he anticipated, a colorful and critical record of Manifest Destiny without so muchjingoistic panache. Austin Community CollegeBob Cavendish New Mexico Territory during the Civil War: Wallen and Evans Inspection Reports, 1862-1863. Edited with an introduction by Jerry D. Thompson. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2008. Pp. 312. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 9780826344793, $34.85 cloth.) Jerry Thompson's introduction to this edited collection details events and conditions in Civil War-era New Mexico and focuses on Federal administration of the region after the ill-fated Confederate invasion led by Henry Hopkins Sibley. Union officers encountered several significant problems in their attempts to administer the Department of New Mexico. Amid constant preparation for another Confederate invasion that never materialized, the officers worried about the lack of trained physicians to care for their soldiers, while the isolated location created difficulties in securing the soldiers' pay. To make matters worse, rampant alcoholism plagued officers and enlisted men at the frontier outposts. As Thompson skillfully explains, the geographic isolation, loneliness, absence of a temperance influence, and the presence of post sutlers and whiskey peddlers all contributed to widespread alcohol abuse. Finally, racial tension persisted between the white American officers and soldiers and the region's Hispanic population , a problem exacerbated by the language barrier. The department's commander , James Henry Carleton, considered Hispanics and American Indians inferior and uncivilized obstacles to American expansion and never understood that Hispanic dislike for Confederate Texans did not necessarily equate to support for the United States. Those conditions provide the context for the reports of Henry Davies Wallen and Andrew Wallace Evans, who briefly served as inspector general and assistant inspector general, respectively, in the Department of New Mexico during the Civil War. Both men were West Point graduates, and both were southern by birth but remained loyal to the Union. Both men served in New Mexico only reluctantiy , and both sought service in the Army of the Potomac in the war's eastern theater. Evans eventually secured an assignment to that famous army in 1864 and fought in several engagements in the vicinity of Petersburg, Virginia. Wallen never served in the Army of the Potomac and remained bitter for die rest of his life, insisting that he was denied the appointment because he was born in die South. Both men remained in the Army after the war and served in multiple locations. 126Southwestern Historical QuarterlyJuly Despite their reluctance to serve in the Department of New Mexico, all evidence indicates that Wallen and Evans carried out their duties competently. Indeed, both men produced detailed reports that provide an interesting portrait of life at frontier military outposts. Because of the nature of the inspectors' duties, the reports document the true conditions at the forts and obviously make no attempt to hide any problems. The documents note the inspectors' concerns with specific officers and soldiers, discipline, equipment and supplies, living conditions , payroll information, and include the inspectors' suggestions for improvements . The reports published in this volume pertain to Forts Marcy, Union, Craig, Sumner, West, McRae, and Stanton, and posts at Albuquerque, Los Pinos, and Mesilla in New Mexico Territory; Fort Garland in Colorado Territory; and Franklin, Texas. The book is comprised of thirteen chapters, most of which include an inspector 's report for one fort or post. Each chapter begins with a brief history of the installation in question, and illustrations include maps and several hand-drawn diagrams of the forts. Thompson's endnotes reflect extensive research in National Archives records and select published sources. The book will appeal to individuals interested in the Civil War period in the Trans-Mississippi West, particularly the Far West, and those interested in first-hand accounts of daily life...

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