With the 18th Texas Infantry: The Autobiography of Wilburn Hill King, and: Into the Far, Wild Country: True Tales of the Southwest (review)

350CIVIL WAR HISTORY Sibley has planned additional volumes describing the orders of battle for the Confederate western armies and armies of the trans-Mississippi and coastal defense forces. In the end, this three-set volume will be an indispensable reference and necessary for all Civil War libraries. Dominic J. Caraccilo Middletown, Rhode Island With the i8th Texas Infantry: The Autobiography of Wilbum Hill King. Edited by L. David Norris. (Hillsboro, Tex.: Hill College Press, 1996. Pp. ix, 126. $15.00.) Into the Far, Wild Country: True Tales of the Southwest. By George Wythe Baylor. Edited with an introduction by Jerry D. Thompson. (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1996. Pp. 442. $30.00.) Both then and now, the campaigns of the trans-Mississippi theater of the Civil War have always been somewhat neglected, even though there was more territory in the Confederacy west of the Big Muddy than east of it. The balance has improved a bit of late, but the appearance of two more volumes of reminiscences will be a welcome event for buffs and researchers alike. The first memoir is the life of Wilburn Hill King. Born in Georgia, King found himself in Missouri in 1 86 1 and fought with the Missouri State Guard at Carthage and Wilson's Creek. Convinced that the pro-Southern Guard would never receive full recognition, King resigned his commission and drifted south to Jefferson, Texas. There he joined the 18th Texas Volunteer Infantry as a private , but he would eventually hold every rank up to acting major-general. He was present at the battles on the Teche and the Red River campaign. A wound King received at Mansfield kept him from the Camden campaign. King left the South after the surrender ofthe trans-Mississippi, was an "observer" in Mexico, and wound up in Central America for a few years before the death of his wife caused him to return to Texas. He entered redeemer politics becoming the state adjutant general in the 1 870s and 1 880s and heading the state militia and the Texas Rangers. He died at Sulphur Springs after his retirement from politics in 1910, probably from the complications of diabetes. King's memoirs are full of acerbic comments about the commanders of the trans-Mississippi, most of which modern historians would second and expand upon. The problem with King's memoirs is that they were essentially written fifty years after the fact, and one wonders how much of it was hindsight and how much his view at the time. Some form of roman type would be easier to read than the italics used to adequately distinguish Norris's comments from King's own memoirs. The are a few minor errors. Footnote 49 is incorrectly hidden inside footnote 48; Roy O. Hatton, the fine biographer of Prince Camile de Polignac, is incorrectly listed as "Batton"; and WilliamArceneaux's book on BOOK REVIEWS351 Louisiana general Alfred Mouton ought to be titled "Acadian General," not "Arcadian." But beyond that, editor Norris does an able job filling the gaps between events and keeps the story moving, creating an able and interesting little volume. Serving in the same general area as King was George Wythe Baylor, whose reminiscences on the last half of the nineteenth century have been edited by well-known historian of the Civil War west, Jerry D. Thompson. A well-researched introduction, Thompson presents Baylor to the reader. He was the younger brother ofJohn R. Baylor, the Baylor whom most modern readers know of. His early adulthood was essentially following his brother into the conflicts with Native Americans and his early campaign to establish the Confederate territory of Arizona. Meeting Albert Sydney Johnston at Mesilla, George accepted his offer to accompany his party east as a staff officer. This brought George Baylor to the Battle of Shiloh, where Sydney Johnston died in his arms. Transferring back to his old unit, Baylor not only became lieutenant colonel of the Arizona brigade's second regiment, but he got married as well. He fought in theTeche and the Red River campaigns. Then Baylor came to loggerheads with Maj . Gen. JohnA. Wharton, whom he shot dead in a Houston hotel. The surrender of the...