The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 103, July 1999 - April, 2000 Page: 215

Notes and Documents
An Indian Superintendent at the Battle of
Valverde: The Civil War Letters of James L. Collins
EDITED BY JERRY THOMPSON*
SINCE THE END OF THE CIVIL WAR IN APRIL AND MAY 1865, OVER FIFTY-FIVE
thousand books, more than one a day, have been written on or about
the conflict. In the process as many as nine thousand battles and skir-
mishes have been identified by historians. It was not until the approach
of the centennial of the war, however, that any serious scholarship
began to appear on the war in New Mexico Territory. As expected, sev-
eral major studies concentrated on the 1861-1862 Confederate invasion
of the territory.' Interest in the conflict spawned the republication of
those portions of the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion relative to
the Confederate invasion.2 Biographies emerged on the commanders of
the two armies, the always cautious Gen. Edward Richard Sprigg Canby
and the heavy drinking and grandiose dreaming Gen. Henry Hopkins
Sibley, as well as the unfatiguable Federal Col. Manuel Chavez, the gal-
lant Capt. Alexander MacRae, and the egotistical and unpredictable
Capt. James Graydon.' Confederates who caught the eye of historians
* Jerry Thompson, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at Texas A&M International
University at Laredo, has long been a scholar of the Civil War in the Southwest. The author of
fourteen books, he is also an authority on the history of the Texas-Mexico border
Robert Lee Kerby, The Confederate Invasion of New Mexico and Arizona, 1861-1862 (Los
Angeles- Westernlore Press, 1958); Ray C. Colton, The Cavil War in the Western Terrtoizes
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1959); and Martin H Hall, Sabley's New Mexico Camnpaig
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 196o)
2 Confederate Victories in the Southwest: Prelude to Defeat (Albuquerque: Horn and Wallace, 1961);
and Union Army Operatzons in the Southwest- Final Victory (Albuquerqrue Horn and Wallace, 1961).
Max L. Heyman, Prudent Soldzer: A Biography of Major-General E R. S. Canby (Glendale: Arthur
H. Clark Co., 1959);.Jerry Thompson, Confederate General of the West. Henry Hopkm l Sibley (College
VOL. CIII, NO. 2 SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY OCTOBER, 1999