HENRY HOPKINS SIBLEY: CONFEDERATE GENERAL OF THE WEST. Foreword by Frank E. Zandiver., Illus., Leonel Garza Jr. by Thompson, Jerry - 1987

Natchitoches, LA.: Northwestern University Press,, 1987. Hardcover. Good. Hardcover no jacket EXLIB no external markings. Nice crisp copy. 399 pp. , biblio, index, maps. Thompson portrays the life and career of a soldier whose character flaws and leadership weaknesses stood in stark contrast to his sometime military successes and mechanical ingenuity. A veteran of the Mexican-American War, Sibley served in Texas from 1850 to 1855, moving west with his regiment to Kansas and then joining the 1857 Utah Expedition. By the end of 1859 he had moved on to the New Mexico Territory. When the Civil War broke out, Jefferson Davis appointed him to lead an expeditionary force from Texas to seize New Mexico, Colorado, and California. He won a controversial Confederate victory at the Battle of Valverde �controversial because of his own disreputable performance. In the spring of that year, after defeat at Glorieta Pass, he retreated in disgrace from New Mexico into west Texas and later faced court-martial for his inadequate and often drunken leadership