The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 92, July 1988 - April, 1989 Page: 380

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

Padillas and laid plans for the coming season's trade," and the author
speculates on their thoughts and plans; and, finally, "imagine" solidifies
into "This was the plan hatched at Los Padillas" (p. 9). Constant refer-
ence is made to "Kansas," but there was no territory or state of Kansas
at that time. The area west of the state of Missouri was unorganized
Indian territory of the United States, and it would have been better to
have said "what is now Kansas." A statement is made on page 13 that
when "migration [to Texas] became a flood, worried [Mexican] offi-
cials attempted to slow the entry of foreigners," but this is inaccurate.
The Mexican decree of April 6, 1830, only prohibited further coloniza-
tion in Texas by citizens of the United States, and encouraged Euro-
pean and Mexican families to settle in Texas. General Adriain Woll did
not seize San Antonio in "midsummer" (p. 14). There are other errors
of fact.
The author is more indecisive than necessary as to the McDaniel
party's intention upon leaving Westport about April 1, 1843, along the
trail (pp. 23, 27-29). At that time they knew nothing of the Chavez
party. Their intentions were to join Colonel Charles A. Warfield at the
Point of Rocks. Warfield had been granted a "colonel's" commission by
the government of Texas to fit out an expedition to prey upon Mexican
traders upon the Santa Fe Trail as they crossed territory claimed by
Texas. The encounter with Chavez was accidental, although exploited;
and robbery and murder were committed on the soil of the United
States. I find the story interesting, but incomplete.
Texas A&M University JOSEPH MILTON NANCE
The Confederate Image: Prints of the Lost Cause. By Mark E. Neely, Jr.,
Harold Holzer, and Gabor S. Boritt. (Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 1987. Pp. xiv+257. Introduction, color
plates, illustrations, afterword, notes, bibliography, index. $32.50,
cloth; $14.95, paper.)
A superficial glance at the prints in this book is enough to establish
that uninterpreted popular prints cannot compete with contemporary
photographs in conveying a feel for the realities of Civil War scenes
and personalities. As evidence of the Confederate experience, further-
more, most of the prints are worthless, for most were drawn after the
war by Yankees, and their purpose was economic profit, not histori-
cal truth. And yet, as analyzed by these thorough and imaginative
scholars, the prints afford stunning and unexpected insights into Civil
War history.
At the time of secession and for a few months after, southern print-
makers were able to illustrate and exalt popular enthusiasm for inde-

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