The Civil War in New Mexico

Taking nineteen years of research by the author, this is the story of the Civil War as the Volunteers of New Mexico lived and fought it. One chapter deals with the scene in Washington, DC, ten years before the first gun was fired at Fort Sumter; another chapter deals with the Texas claim to all the area of New Mexico bordering the Rio Grande and the near war with the United States over Santa Fe County, Texas. The last chapter gives the alphabetical list of all the New Mexico Volunteers from A to Z as found in the records of the War Department. The author included this list in order to enable any relatives to trace the war record of the heroic men who fought at Valverde, Peralta, Santa Fe, Glorieta, Pigeon's Ranch, and the Indian campaigns. The march of the Colorado Volunteers and the California Column is completely covered as well as the work of these men during the war years. The New Mexico Volunteers were unjustly maligned by Edward Canby, the author said, and authors ever since have echoed his sentiments without investigating the facts. This book corrects many misconceptions that may be useful to all interested in the Civil War in New Mexico. Includes bibliography. "An easterner by birth but a southwesterner at heart, Father Stanley Francis Louis Crocchiola had as many vocations as names," says his biographer, Mary Jo Walker. "As a young man, he entered the Catholic priesthood and for nearly half a century served his church with great zeal in various capacities, attempting to balance the callings of teacher, pastor, historian and writer." With limited money or free time, he also managed to write and publish one hundred and seventy-seven books and booklets pertaining to his adopted region under his "nom de plume," F. Stanley, The initial in that name does not stand for Father, as many have assumed, but for Francis, which Louis Crocchiola took, with the name Stanley, at the time of his ordination as Franciscan friar in 1938. All of F. Stanley's titles have now reached the status of expensive collector's items.