The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 75, July 1971 - April, 1972 Page: 108

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

thieves, and the boomers and sooners who helped transform Indian
Territory into Oklahoma. From Custer's Washita campaign of 1868 to
the run of 1893 into the Cherokee Strip, Fort Supply ranked with a
handful of western posts that seemed more often than not to be the
center of some kind of action.
Carriker has mined the official records thoroughly and produced a
competent history of the fort and the events in which it was promi-
nent. His chapter on the Red River War of 1874-1875 in the Texas
Panhandle is especially well done, notably for its description of the
logistic complications that so decisively affected tactical performance
but that receive only incidental treatment in most accounts. By con-
trast, the chapter on the winter campaign of 1868-1869, which gave
birth to Fort Supply, is commonplace and suffers from an annoying
confusion about military ranks that reduces the chain of command to
chaos.
On the whole, though, Carriker has done his task well. The research
is thorough, and the presentation is clear, concise, and readable. Flesh-
ing out a significant phase of southern plains history, Fort Supply will
be welcomed by students of the American West.
National Park Service ROBERT M. UTLEY
The Spanish Borderlands Frontier, 1513-z821. By John Francis Ban-
non. (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970. Pp. xii+3o8.
Introduction, maps, bibliography, index. $8.95.)
Father Bannon calls his new text on the borderlands "a golden
jubilee volume," for its brings up-to-date the work by Professor Her-
bert Eugene Bolton, The Spanish Borderlands, which, some fifty years
ago, gave its name to the region. The story, thanks to the efforts of
Bolton and his many able students (of whom Professor Bannon was
one), is familiar; it traces the northward movement of Spanish fron-
tiersmen-explorers, friars, miners, and ranchers-from central Mex-
ico to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, and from the
Caribbean to Florida, Louisiana, and beyond. But Professor Bannon
has scanned the research of the years since Bolton's book appeared
and gathered its fruits in this helpful synthesis. The searcher after
information on such subjects as Father Kino, the revolt in New Mex-
ico in 168o, the Spanish settlement of Texas, Fray Junipero Serra, or
other borderlands topics might well begin with this book. It may be
noted that it is written from the Spanish point of view: Anglo-Amer-

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