War Waits: The Southwest Borderlands and the Civil War Era

War waits for any scholar of the Civil War Era who ventures into the North American West or Southwest Borderlands. It is, however, an error to simply interpret any conflict encountered as the Civil War. Rather a borderland “ethic” is encouraged that privileges the local over the national. It is explored through the deeper histories surrounding the Battle of Apache Pass in Arizona in 1862 between California Volunteers and Chiricahua Apaches and the Massacre at Fort Fauntleroy in New Mexico in 1861 by New Mexico Volunteers on Navajos. Both of these engagements had far more to do with local borderland conditions, particularly raiding for captives and livestock, than the national Civil War. Scholars thus need to incorporate the national into the local.