Blood and Treasure tells the fascinating story of the Confederacy's ambitious plan to conquer the Southwestern territories of New Mexico and Arizona. Led by Lieutenant Colonel, and later Arizona governor, John R. Baylor and General H. H. Sibley, Texan soldiers trekked from San Antonio to Fort Bliss in El Paso, then northward up 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...

On the morning of March 26, 1862, Confederate and Union armies met in Glorieta Pass in the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. A series of skirmishes, jockeying for position, and a pitched battle on March 28 took a heavy toll on both sides and left the Rebels under Gen. Henry Hopkins Sibley apparently victorious over Gen. John P. Slough's troops.
However, the tide turned when Union soldiers under Col. John Chivington located the Confederate supply train and destroyed it. Without supplies, replacement arms, and ammunition, the Rebel troops could not maintain themselves...

In 1861 and 1862, in the vast deserts and rugged mountains of the Southwest, eighteen hundred miles from Washington and Richmond, the Civil War raged in a struggle that could have decided the fate of the nation.
In the summer and fall of 1861, Gen. Henry Hopkins Sibley raised a brigade of young and zealous Texans to invade New Mexico Territory as a step toward the conquest of Colorado and California and the creation of a Confederate empire in the Southwest. Of the Sibley Brigade's sixteen major battles during the war, their most excruciating experiences came during the ill-fated New...

1862. Admiral David Farragut orders enclaves to be established in Texas as part of the Federal blockade. This involves attempts against Corpus Christi, Sabine Pass, Galveston, and Port Lavaca. By the end of the year Federal troops reduce the defenses of Sabine Pass and occupy Galveston, the state's principal port. However, the gains prove tenuous. While Federal sailors await Union infantry reinforcements, the Confederates, under Gen. John B. Magruder, seize the initiative. They organize a makeshift fleet of "cottonclads"--lightly armed and armored, but good platforms for sharpshooters--and...

Despite the Depression, James Bruce Frazier spent the best years of his childhood on the Cross Ell Ranch just west of Big Spring. Years later, as he reflected on those days, he began writing down the experiences he had, the people he met, and the lessons he learned.

The stories were passed along to his children and then to his grandchildren and then his great-grandchildren. Frazier died in 1989 at the age of sixty-five, but his stories are as vivid and fresh and colorful as the day he wrote them. His stories touch all the emotions, making the reader laugh out loud one moment as Frazier...

Every city has a look and feel that informs how people respond to it. Visitors react to the skyline, clean streets, traffic patterns and the like, while its citizens speak of civic pride, heritage, and spirit. This love of place illustrates the passions and values of the society that fosters it. Some economists and thinkers refer to social capital, others cultural capital, when discussing the value added by the appreciation of the history and heritage of a community. The more people know about their hometown, the more they support it, love it, and keep it. The settlement that sprang up along...