The Apache Wars

If you are looking for one volume that will highlight and summarize the events of the Apache wars, then Paul Andrew Hutton's work is one that you must own.  He does his best to compile a massive amount of work into a readable format that helps the modern-day reader understand what occurred.  At times, he, due the nature of the material, has to deviate from a chronological approach; however, his style is easy to follow.

You will learn more about the "famous" names of the Apache Wars like Geronimo, Cochise, and Kit Carson; yet, you will be exposed to the lives of others like Mickey Free and George Bascom (to whom you could assign the blame for starting what the author calls the longest war in American history).  The detail is not so much to overwhelm someone mildly interested in the topic but sufficient enough to appease the appetites for those seriously interested in history.

One thing I greatly enjoyed about the book was the infusion of these Indian Wars during the Civil War.  Each side had men that joined the respective armies to fight Rebels or Yankees, but they ended up fighting Indians.  At one odd junction, Rebels and Yankees alike were aligned fighting for their lives.  You even see women holed up in a general store loading a cannon with nails and glass for improvised grape shot.

As far as contemporary lessons from the book, there are so many that I am not going to devote a tremendous amount of time on them.  I cannot, however, overlook the opportunity to speak briefly about one Lt. George Bascom.  As the author puts it, he "was a young man in a hurry."  He did not make the right decisions to resolve the abduction matter and that sparked the long war.  But, why?  The author betrays it in the quote above -- he was so focused on advancement that he did not stop to think about the long-term implications of his choice.  He received a good name for his self-congratulatory report and was promoted to captain during the Civil War where he lost his life.  He never lived to see the full effect of what he started, and that is a lesson for us all to ponder - our everyday decisions leave a legacy beyond our life that we would be wise to carefully tend.

Its a good read and, even with its size of more than 400 pages, a quick one.  If you are interested in the West, give this a read.

To comply with new regulations introduced by the Federal Trade Commission, I am offering this disclaimer:  I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.