Booknotes: Panting for Glory

New Arrival:
• Panting For Glory: The Mississippi Rifles in the Mexican War by Richard B. Winders (TAMU Press, 2016).

Every student of the U.S.'s 1846-48 war with Mexico is familiar with the exploits (most famously at the Battle of Buena Vista) of the 1st Mississippi Rifles, and Civil War readers know from countless references in the literature that Jefferson Davis was the colonel of the regiment. The same cannot be said for popular knowledge of the 2nd Mississippi Rifles, which saw little fighting during its own Mexican War adventure and went home in obscurity. Richard Winders's Panting for Glory "uncovers the contrasting wartime experiences" of the two units. It "compares these regiments to show that the contours of history were sometimes arbitrary and that military historians, in their analysis of failure, should take into account a wide range of factors that influence outcomes, not merely records of wins and losses."