Westward the Texans: The Civil War Journal of Pvt. William R. Howell (review)

BOOK REVIEWS273 one's point of view are helpful in making an argument clear, they do not prove the assertions made. Mulkhearn does not throw as much light as he seems to believe on the sources of party support, its appeal, its organizational activities, or its legislative history. More rigorous attention to some of the problems of measuring support, as well as more extended, in-depth discussion and texturing of the party's "populist" activities at the local level (including its campaign and legislative operations), would have been most helpful and added a great deal to this study. Joel H. Silbey Cornell University Westward the Texans: The Civil War Journal ofPvt. William R. Howell. Edited by Jerry D. Thompson. (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1990. Pp. 184. $20.00.) The Civil War in the western territories generally receives much less attention than the better known battles in the East. New Mexico seems a long way from the Virginia battlefields, and historians historically have tended to shy away from a subject that has limited popular appeal and is more difficult to research because of the paucity of primary materials. However, in the summer of 1987 with the discovery of the remains of thirty-three Confederates in a mass grave near Glorieta, New Mexico, the public began to ask questions. Who were these men, and what really happened in the foothills east of Santa Fe 125 years before? Moreover, uncovering these bodies set off a modern day battle between officials in the state of New Mexico, who wanted to bury the men where they had died, and officials in Texas who insisted that the bodies, since they were Texans, be interred in the Texas State Cemetery at Austin alongside the remains of their Confederate comrades. Although the fighting in the western territories still remains an obscure footnote in American history, the dispute over where the men should be laid to rest stirred an interest in the region. Most Americans consider the war in the territories as insignificant, but Jerry Don Thompson in Westward the Texans: The Civil War Journal ofPrivate William Randolph Howell asserts that the New Mexico campaign of 1861-62 "was undeniably one of the most important of the Civil War." Moreover, he claims, "Had the overall objectives of the expedition been realized, the history of the Southern Confederacy might have been radically altered" (1). Thompson's belief that the Confederate nation could have maintained any real control over the vast area from Texas to California is difficult to accept. The overwhelming problems of administering to such an enormous region would have made chances of its success doubtful, and it is unlikely that Lincoln would have ever allowed Confederates to gain 274CIVIL WAR HISTORY a foothold in California. Thompson's belief that a "Confederate Manifest Destiny" could have ever become reality is tenuous at best. Nevertheless, this is a useful book for anyone interested in Confederate Brig. Gen. Henry Hopkins Sibley's New Mexico campaign. The actual text of the diary is only sixty-five pages, covering the period from April 1861 until July 1862, and many of Private Howell's entries only inform the reader how far the command went on any given day. Even the battle of Glorieta, where the Texans were buried in a mass grave, consists of a six sentence entry. Thompson has compensated for the lack of substance in the diary by using the first fifty-one pages to summarize the campaign and write a historiographical essay describing lesser-known works, including diaries, letters, memoirs, and newspapers that relate to it. Unfortunately , many of these tantalizing sources are unpublished and accessible only to the most diligent researcher. Still, this is a useful work and would be valuable to anyone with an interest in Sibley's New Mexico campaign. Anne J. Bailey Georgia Southern University The Papers ofFrederick Law Olmsted: Volume V, The California Frontier, 1863-1865. Edited by Victoria Post Ranney. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990. Pp. xxvi, 848. $48.50.) The fifth of twelve projected volumes in this fine series finds Olmsted in California, away from his New York home and his wartime work at the Sanitary Commission. In August 1863, Olmsted...