Thomas W. Cutrer

This book attempts to be a comprehensive work on the American Civil War west of the Mississippi River. To an extent it succeeds, while still leaving areas for improvement.
One of those areas deals not with the book’s content but with a lackluster effort of proofreading. There are instances where repetitious text occurs in successive paragraphs, muddied references to directions, and sometimes confusing narrative.
To me, a serious deficiency is the lack of any useful maps. The one map provided does have several locations denoted but they are not numerous. While some battles described are given limited but adequate coverage, others are delved into more deeply, such as those in Louisiana, yet there are no accompanying maps to help develop a picture of what areas were deemed critical to defend, and more importantly why they were so.
The opening of the work concerns itself with the move for secession of the states in the trans-Mississippi region and does describe the politics involved. What is lacking is a concomitant discussion of the Federal steps (if any) to retain those areas for the Federal government.
Another of the problems encountered is that there is a lack of describing events that occurred simultaneously and how they impacted each other. I found this troublesome since a campaign might cover several months only to have the next chapter discuss actions happening before those in the previous chapter, or else extending to a time after the war ended.
I realize that the scope of the book is vast, and I do applaud the author in taking on such a challenge. Overall, the book does provide insights into the personalities involved, the atmosphere of the region, the involvement of and cost to native peoples, and many other aspects not normally covered in books about the ACW. I recommend this work if one desires a readable overview of that theater of the war.… (mer)