Booknotes II (Sept '15)

New Arrivals:

1. A Civil War History of the New Mexico Volunteers and Militia by Jerry D. Thompson (Univ of NM Pr, 2015).

At nearly 1,000 pages this book could beat up the Oxford English Dictionary. In addition to offering unit histories of the 1st and 2nd New Mexico Volunteer Infantry (both of which played important roles in the 1861-62 New Mexico Campaign that constitutes a major focus of the book), Thompson's book also studies a third volunteer regiment of mounted infantry and part of another New Mexico regiment. The volume also covers the Southwest US campaigns against the Apache and Navajo as well as the Battle of Adobe Walls fought in 1864 against a combined force of Kiowas and Comanches. Among the numerous appendices are unit rosters.


2. Lincoln's Final Hours: Conspiracy, Terror, and the Assassination of America's Greatest President by Kathryn Canavan (Univ Pr of KY, 2015).

From the publisher's description: "this fast-paced account not only furnishes a glimpse into John Wilkes Booth's personal and political motivations but also illuminates the stories of ordinary people whose lives were changed forever by the assassination." ... "Through her careful narration of the twists of fate that placed the president in harm's way, of the plotting conversations Booth had with his accomplices, and of the immediate aftermath of the assassination, Canavan illustrates how the experiences of a single night changed the course of history."