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Colonel John Robert Baylor: Texas Indian Fighter and Confederate Soldier (review)
- Civil War History
- The Kent State University Press
- Volume 20, Number 1, March 1974
- pp. 69-70
- 10.1353/cwh.1974.0084
- Review
- Additional Information
BOOK REVIEWS69 terly ridiculous." Thus runs Mrs. Ellison's analysis. Her conclusions seem irrefutable. An Epilogue by Peter d'A. Jones entitled "The History of a Myth" traces 100 years of erroneous affirmation of strong support for the North among British cotton operatives. Many leading historians are shown to have been taken in by this myth, which Professor Jones asserts "was born in propaganda and was sustained because it suited the purposes and self-images of those who sustained it." This "illusion, necessary alike to the Marxist and American world views, is now evaporated." Nine valuable tables and an extensive bibliography round out this excellent study. Norman B. Ferris Middle Tennessee State University Colonel John Robert Baylor: Texas Indian Fighter and Confederate Soldier. By Jerry Don Thompson. (Hillsboro, Texas: Hill Junior College , 1971. Pp. viii, 114.) John R. Baylor, when he is mentioned in general histories of the transMississippi Civil War, is treated only briefly. He is acknowledged for his military success in Texas and his role as governor of the shortlived Confederate territory of Arizona. Since the South was unable to maintain control of this area Baylor's fame is equally fleeting. In a slim monograph, Jerry Don Thompson has written a life of this Texas figure. He traces Baylor from his medieval ancestors through his birth in 1822 to his 1894 death. He discusses Baylor's various roles as Indian agent and Indian fighter, Confederate Army officer, member of the Confederate Congress, governor of Confederate Arizona and post-Civil War rancher. He also relates how Baylor killed two men in grudge fights and issued an order calling for the "extermination" of Indians in Texas. (This edict caused such a stir that Jefferson Davis responded to insure its non-fulfillment.) This book is based mainly on the Baylor Papers in the University of Texas Archives. Strangely, however, several important books on Texas are not mentioned in the bibliography and a number of pertinent articles are also among the missing. The writing style is at times labored except in those places where Thompson is recounting anecdotes (e.g., the two fights). The key weakness, however, is that, although most of the book deals with Baylor's military activities, Thompson never clearly indicates Baylor's significance to Texas Civil War history. He intimates that if Henry Hopkins Sibley had not replaced Baylor, the Confederate advance into Arizona-New Mexico might have been more permanently successful. Unfortunately, he does not make this point strongly nor does he attempt to prove it. This book has some merit for those interested in a brief account 70CIVIL WAR HISTORY of John R. Baylor and early Confederate military activities in Texas. It is too brief to be thorough biography or military history. John F. Marszalek, Jr. Mississippi State University L. Q. C. Lamar: Pragmatic Patriot. By James B. Murphy. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1973. Pp. 294. $11.95.) Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar (1825-1896) was a pivotal figure in the reconstruction of the nation and his life and career have attracted biographers. In 1935 Wirt Armisted Cate published Lucius Q. C. Lamar , Secession and Reunion, which, until now, has been the standard life of the Mississippi statesman. Long, laudatory, and laced with effusive claims about Lamar's abilities as an original thinker, a political theorist, and a great jurist, Cate's biography stands with the DunningBowers school of southern historical writing. In contrast, James B. Murphy draws a much more sober, and probably more accurate, picture of Lamar's career and his accomplishments. Based on a thorough investigation of manuscript sources, a detailed reading of the Congressional Record, and extensive work in newspaper files, Murphy's judgments about Lamar's character and career are firmly rooted and convincing. Thus, he sees Lamar as "essentially an orator and a propagandist" and not "an original thinker" (p. 45); a politician who combined "statesmanship of a high order" with "bald deception of the northern people" on the race question (p. 133); a transitional figure between the Sumner eulogy and the Hayes-Tilden election of 1876 which cemented Mississippi Home Rule (p. 187). In his appointive offices Murphy found Lamar a "reasonably competent" Secretary of the Interior (p...