About this item
A dramatic, riveting, and deeply researched narrative account of the epic struggle for the West during the Civil War, revealing a little-known, vastly important episode in American history.In The Three-Cornered War Megan Kate Nelson reveals the fascinating history of the Civil War in the American West. Exploring the connections among the Civil War, the Indian wars, and western expansion, Nelson reframes the era as one of national conflict - involving not just the North and South, but also the West. Against the backdrop of this larger series of battles, Nelson introduces nine individuals: John R. Baylor, a Texas legislator who established the Confederate Territory of Arizona; Louisa Hawkins Canby, a Union Army wife who nursed Confederate soldiers back to health in Santa Fe; James Carleton, a professional soldier who engineered campaigns against Navajos and Apaches; Kit Carson, a famous frontiersman who led a regiment of volunteers against the Texans, Navajos, Kiowas, and Comanches; Juanita, a Navajo weaver who resisted Union campaigns against her people; Bill Davidson, a soldier who fought in all of the Confederacy's major battles in New Mexico; Alonzo Ickis, an Iowa-born gold miner who fought on the side of the Union; John Clark, a friend of Abraham Lincoln's who embraced the Republican vision for the West as New Mexico's surveyor-general; and Mangas Coloradas, a revered Chiricahua Apache chief who worked to expand Apache territory in Arizona. As we learn how these nine charismatic individuals fought for self-determination and control of the region, we also see the importance of individual actions in the midst of a larger military conflict. The Three-Cornered War is a captivating history - based on letters and diaries, military records and oral histories, and photographs and maps from the time - that sheds light on a forgotten chapter of American history.
About the Author
Hi there! I'm Megan Kate Nelson, a writer, historian, road cyclist, and cocktail enthusiast.My new book, "Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America," was published by Scribner on March 1, 2022 - the 150th anniversary of the Yellowstone Act, which created the first national park in the world. I am also the author of "The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West" (Scribner, 2020) , which was a Finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in History.I am an expert in the history of the American Civil War, the U.S. West, and popular culture. I have written articles about these topics for The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, and TIME. My column on Civil War popular culture, "Stereoscope," appears regularly in the Civil War Monitor. I have also written two previous books: "Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War" (Georgia, 2012) and "Trembling Earth: A Cultural History of the Okefenokee Swamp" (Georgia, 2005) .I earned my BA in History and Literature from Harvard University and my PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa. Before leaving academia to write full-time in 2014, I taught U.S. history and American Studies at Texas Tech University, Cal State Fullerton, Harvard, and Brown.You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at @megankatenelson
