Blood & Treasure: Confederate Empire in the Southwest

Texas A&M University Military History Series

By: Donald S. Frazier

Narrated by: James Foster

Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

For decades before the Civil War, Southern writers and warriors had been urging the occupation and development of the American Southwest. When the rift between North and South had been finalized in secession, the Confederacy moved to extend their traditions to the west - a long-sought goal that had been frustrated by northern states. It was a common sentiment among Southerners and especially Texans that Mexico must be rescued from indolent inhabitants and granted the benefits of American civilization.

Blood and Treasure, written in a readable narrative style that belies the rigorous research behind it, tells the story of the Confederacy's ambitious plan to extend a Confederate empire across the continent. Led by Lieutenant Colonel John R. Baylor, later a governor of Arizona, and General H. H. Sibley, Texan soldiers trekked from San Antonio to Fort Bliss in El Paso, then north along the Rio Grande to Santa Fe. Fighting both Apaches and Federal troops, the half-trained, undisciplined army met success at the Battle of Val Verde and defeat at the Battle of Apache Canyon. Finally, the Texans won the Battle of Glorieta Pass, only to lose their supply train - and eventually the campaign. Pursued and dispirited, the Confederates abandoned their dream of empire and retreated to El Paso and San Antonio.

Frazier has made use of previously untapped primary sources, allowing him to present new interpretations of the famous Civil War battles in the Southwest. Using narratives of veterans of the campaign and official Confederate and Union documents, the author explains how this seemingly far-fetched fantasy of building a Confederate empire was an essential part of the Confederate strategy. Military historians will be challenged to modify traditional views of Confederate imperial ambitions. Generalists will be drawn into the fascinating saga of the soldiers' fears, despair, and struggles to survive.

©1995 Donald Shaw Frazier (P)2014 Donald Shaw Frazier

A different cover photo is all it needs

Create a better cover art for this and it will get a thousand more purchases and it deserves it, right up there with the best historical books of 19th century warfare on Audible.
Very good telling of this hardly known part of the Civil War.

A must have for Civil War buffs

They is an incredibility detailed account from the Confederate viewpoint of the Southwestern theater of the war. This will give you all the details you need on a often unknown theater of the civil war.