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During the Civil War, the Second Colorado Volunteer Regiment played a vital and often decisive role in the fight for the Union on the Great Plains—and in the westward expansion of the American empire. Christopher M. Rein’s The Second Colorado Cavalry is the first in-depth history of this regiment operating at the nexus of the Civil War and the settlement of the American West. Composed largely of footloose ’59ers who raced west to participate in the gold rush in Colorado, the troopers of the Second Colorado repelled Confederate invasions in New Mexico and Indian Territory before wading into the Burned District along the Kansas border, the bloodiest region of the guerilla war in Missouri. In 1865, the regiment moved back out onto the plains, applying what it had learned to peacekeeping operations along the Santa Fe Trail, thus definitively linking the Civil War and the military conquest of the American West in a single act of continental expansion. Emphasizing the cavalry units, whose mobility proved critical in suppressing both Confederate bushwhackers and Indian raiders, Rein tells the neglected tale of the “fire brigade” of the Trans-Mississippi Theater—a group of men, and a few women, who enabled the most significant environmental shift in the Great Plains’ history: the displacement of Native Americans by Euro-American settlers, the swapping of bison herds for fenced cattle ranges, and the substitution of iron horses for those of flesh and bone. The Second Colorado Cavalry offers us a much-needed history of the “guerilla hunters” who helped suppress violence and keep the peace in contested border regions; it adds nuance and complexity to our understanding of the unlikely “agents of empire” who successfully transformed the Central Plains.
Excerpt from Colorado Volunteers in the Civil War: The New Mexico Campaign in 1862 Our Civil \var was the most tremendous struggle for preserva tion Of the national unity Of a homogeneous people Of which the annals Of our race contain any record. Its battle-front was more than two thousand miles long, reaching from the Virginia Coast far into the large Territory of New Mexico, which, until the organiza tion Of Arizona Territory in 1863, extended westward to California. Near the western end Of this unparalleled fighting-line one Of the highly momentous campaigns in that great national tragedy was closed in victory for the Union early in the second year Of the war. The men in whom were the military ability and the very bone and Sinew Of the Union cause In that campaign, and who bore the burden Of hardship and sacrifice in winning the victory which abruptly checked and turned the rising tide Of Confederate successes in the Southwest, were citizen-soldiers Of the of Colorado. On the part Of the Confederates that campaign meant far more than appears when it is considered merely as a military enterprise as an ambitious mroad into a section of the national domain out side the boundaries Oi the Southern Confederacy. Back of it was a political project Of vast magnitude, upon which enthusiastic South ern leaders had set their hearts. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Having been born and raised on the Missouri River at Atchison, Kansas, and having the ghosts of the Civil War about me constantly, I have been passionately interested in the Civil War as long as I can remember. The Victorian and antebellum homes with servant quarters still behind them, the wooded bluffs and caves where escaped slaves were hidden, and the mystique of the Missouri River area itself have maintained this feeling of the war for me. My mothers immediate family was from the Missouri River bottoms on the Missouri side and my fathers immediate family was from rural Atchison on the Kansas side. From my incomplete and somewhat misinformed family and formal history education, I assumed for most of my life that my mothers family was Confederate in its leanings and that my fathers family was Union. I was unaware that the town and countys namesake, Sen. David Rice Atchison, was from Missouri and had much Pro-Slavery activity. No effort has ever been made to change the towns name since the war. No Confederate tie to him was taught in any of my classes in school.
Colorado troops were vitally important for the Union in the quest to win the Civil War. They served throughout the American West from Missouri to Utah, and their enemies were not only ordinary Confederate troops but also fearsome guerrillas under William Quantrill and "Blood Bill" Anderson. Vital Western transportation routes--like the Santa Fe, Oregon, Smoky Hill, and Cherokee Trails--were guarded by the Coloradans. Tragically, actions by Colorado soldiers, including the horrific Sand Creek Massacre, ignited decades of warfare with Native American tribes. This book features vintage images that chronicle Colorado's Civil War soldiers, where they served, and who they fought.
“Hollister was a private in the First Regiment of Colorado Volunteers which fought the New Mexican campaign against the invading Texan troops in March, 1862. This book might have been a dry recital of facts. Fortunately Hollister was not only an educated man but natural writer who brought to his task imagination, a deep human interest, and a careful reporter’s news sense. Here is no grandfather’s tale but a narrative so live that it might have taken place yesterday. Here is history that echoes with thrilling adventure. Hollister, hardened, realistic soldier-author, seemed to know, as he made daily entries in his diary, that his on-the-spot reportage of the rawhide passions and broadrange loyalties, the hearty campfire humor and the grim punishment of forced winter marches, the ignoble details of life as he saw it in a fighting man’s era, must be set down for all of us who were to come after his rugged breed. The true importance of the campaign between the Coloradans and the Texans goes far beyond a local effect. It was one of the decisive struggles of the Civil War. If Sibley’s seasoned Texas Brigade had won, they surely would have dominated the West and its resources. They would have seized the defenseless gold mines which were the potential treasure cache of the armies of the North. The war might have been prolonged indefinitely.”-William MacLeod Raine
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During the Civil War, the Second Colorado Volunteer Regiment played a vital and often decisive role in the fight for the Union on the Great Plains—and in the westward expansion of the American empire. Christopher M. Rein’s The Second Colorado Cavalry is the first in-depth history of this regiment operating at the nexus of the Civil War and the settlement of the American West. Composed largely of footloose ’59ers who raced west to participate in the gold rush in Colorado, the troopers of the Second Colorado repelled Confederate invasions in New Mexico and Indian Territory before wading into the Burned District along the Kansas border, the bloodiest region of the guerilla war in Missouri. In 1865, the regiment moved back out onto the plains, applying what it had learned to peacekeeping operations along the Santa Fe Trail, thus definitively linking the Civil War and the military conquest of the American West in a single act of continental expansion. Emphasizing the cavalry units, whose mobility proved critical in suppressing both Confederate bushwhackers and Indian raiders, Rein tells the neglected tale of the “fire brigade” of the Trans-Mississippi Theater—a group of men, and a few women, who enabled the most significant environmental shift in the Great Plains’ history: the displacement of Native Americans by Euro-American settlers, the swapping of bison herds for fenced cattle ranges, and the substitution of iron horses for those of flesh and bone. The Second Colorado Cavalry offers us a much-needed history of the “guerilla hunters” who helped suppress violence and keep the peace in contested border regions; it adds nuance and complexity to our understanding of the unlikely “agents of empire” who successfully transformed the Central Plains.