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Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: October 1, 2020 at 1:09:02 PM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-War]: Hoehne on Rein, 'The Second Colorado Cavalry: > A Civil War Regiment on the Great Plains' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Christopher M. Rein. The Second Colorado Cavalry: A Civil War > Regiment on the Great Plains. Norman University of Oklahoma Press, > 2020. 288 pp. $34.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8061-6481-6. > > Reviewed by Patrick Hoehne (University of Nebraska) > Published on H-War (October, 2020) > Commissioned by Margaret Sankey > > _The Second Colorado Cavalry_, written by Christopher Rein, > chronicles the Second Colorado's service throughout New Mexico, > Indian Territory, Missouri, and Kansas from 1861 through 1865. Rather > than depicting the regiment as an isolated unit stationed along the > western edge of a massive North-South conflict, Rein argues that the > Second Colorado Cavalry provides an important lens through which to > view the linkages between the Civil War and the western expansion of > the American empire. > > A closer examination of the service of the Second Colorado Cavalry, > Rein argues, muddles the distinctions between the Civil War and the > conquest of the American West. In doing so, Rein joins a cadre of > historians like Heather Cox Richardson, Megan Kate Nelson, and Thomas > Cutrer who have written on the Civil War West. The Second Colorado > performed the arduous and dangerous work of combatting Confederate > guerilla forces, cultivating skill at exerting control through > intelligence collection and rapid, mobile response. The unit would > later apply that experience against Native Americans along the Santa > Fe Trail, operating as effective and seasoned agents of empire in > unceded territories. > > Relying on official records, diaries, and the unit's newspaper, Rein > tracks the service of the Second Colorado chronologically, following > the regiment's movements throughout the Great Plains. Chapter 1 > examines the history of the Colorado Territory and explores the > backgrounds of the men and women who would eventually serve with the > Second Colorado. Initially organized as an infantry regiment, the > unit generally attracted enlistment from miners and farmers who had > failed to make their fortunes during the 1859 gold rush. Chapter 2 > follows the unit to New Mexico, where the Coloradans partook in a > campaign to repulse a Texan invasion designed to expand the > Confederacy into the Southwest. In chapter 3, Rein documents the > Second Colorado's last year as an infantry regiment, 1863. The unit > moved into Indian Territory, where it would see action at the Battle > of Honey Springs, fighting alongside the First Kansas Colored > Infantry and allied Native Americans. Chapter 4 sees the Second > Colorado deployed to the "Burned District" along the Kansas-Missouri > border, an area wracked by bloody guerilla warfare. Transitioning to > a cavalry regiment, the Second Colorado emerged from 1864 as a > skilled and aggressive guerilla-hunting unit. Chapter 5 details the > Second Colorado Calvary's move to Kansas. There, in the wake of the > infamous Sand Creek Massacre, the regiment applied the lessons > learned in Missouri to conflict with Native Americans. > > One of the greatest strengths of _The Second Colorado Cavalry _stems > from the work's depiction of the regiment's evolution as > guerilla-hunting unit. Many of the Second Colorado's soldiers were > themselves no strangers to extralegal violence, with some having > experienced the turbulence of Bleeding Kansas while others > encountered vigilantism through the extrajudicial "miners' courts." > The soldiers were comfortable enough with vigilantism that when Pvt. > Charles Lockman killed Pvt. John Groce in 1864, the men organized > their own hasty trial and lynched Lockman, in flagrant violation of > military regulation (p. 37). This attitude towards violence served > the Second Colorado well as the unit adjusted its tactics to > "bushwhack the bushwhackers" (p. 135). Confederate guerillas had long > used disguise and aggressive, often merciless violence against the > Union's forces and supporters. The Second Colorado's willingness and > ability to adopt tactics similar to their irregular opponents enabled > the regiment to mount an effective and feared campaign against the > guerillas. As Rein argues, the "exterminationist logic" of the > guerilla-hunters would translate easily to the campaigns against > Native Americans in the subsequent months and years (p. 143). > > There are minor flaws in the book, such as the sometimes unnecessary > connections to contemporary warfighting, as is the case when Rein > attempts to characterize the Second Colorado as a "kind of forerunner > to modern United Nations 'peacekeepers'" (p. 122). A handful of > similar instances can be found throughout the text, which encourage > readers to draw unhelpful or potentially misleading parallels between > the combat experience of the Civil War and the present. Still, such > instances are relatively rare, and do not do too much to detract from > the larger narrative or argument. > > _The Second Colorado Cavalry _is a compelling, readable, and useful > history. The work should be of great interest to scholars and members > of the general reading public interested in the histories of the > Civil War and American West. The book is of particular benefit to > those interested in the Civil War's guerilla warfare, and in the > connected violence against Native Americans that followed. Far from > an inconsequential unit stationed in a remote region, Rein makes a > successful case that the Second Colorado Cavalry possesses a > significance worth revisiting. > > Citation: Patrick Hoehne. Review of Rein, Christopher M., _The Second > Colorado Cavalry: A Civil War Regiment on the Great Plains_. H-War, > H-Net Reviews. October, 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55179 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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