The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 100, July 1996 - April, 1997 Page: 401

Book Reviews

During the 1850os, the volume and value of the goods shipped over the Santa
Fe Trail reached new heights and yet, until now, those years have yielded scant
information about this commerce. While Kingsbury's business activities resem-
bled those of other Anglo-American merchants who traded in Santa Fe, his story,
unlike the others, has been preserved in his own letters. From 1853 to 1861,
John Kingsbury sent regular reports to his business partner in Connecticut.
These letters shed new light on this neglected period, revealing much about the
operations of rival firms and the business climate of the southwestern frontier in
general. Kingsbury's letters contain a number of first-hand glimpses into the so-
cial and economic conditions of a Mexican town, deep in Indian-controlled ter-
ritory recently conquered by the United States in the war with Mexico.
Overland shipments that often arrived late, or were delayed when hostile Indi-
ans assaulted the wagon trains, contributed to a general scarcity of merchandise
in Santa Fe. The nature of transportation over the Trail in the 1850os made it im-
possible to get the flow of merchandise that the novice merchant Kingsbury
needed to meet his customers' needs. Although the experienced Webb knew the
necessity of maintaining a consistent flow of goods, he was unable to ship more
often than once a year, when the overland trains were organized and weather
was friendly.
Trading in Santa Fe makes Kingsbury's letters to Webb an indispensable source
for explaining the inner workings of the Santa Fe trade. As opposed to accounts
written from memory long after the ,event, these contemporaneous letters pos-
sess remarkable vividness and fidelity of detail. The editors' introduction to the
volume, chapter introductions, and extensive notes provide valuable back-
ground.
Fort Clark, Brackettville, Texas BEN E. PINGENOT
Confederate Pathway to the Pacific: Major Sherod Hunter and Arizona Territory, C.S.A.
By L. Boyd Finch. (Tucson: The Arizona Historical Society, 1996. Pp.
xv+32o. Appreciation, foreword, introduction, prologue, appendix, notes,
bibliography, index. ISBN 0-910037-36-1. $39.95, cloth.)
Before and during the centennial celebration of the Civil War in the early
1960s, a profusion of scholarship appeared on the war in the Southwest. As ex-
pected, several major studies concentrated on the Confederate invasion of New
Mexico Territory. Since that time, biographies have appeared on the comman-
ders of the two armies in New Mexico, Generals Edward Richard Sprigg Canby
and Henry Hopkins Sibley, and on such diverse warriors as the unfatiguable Fed-
eral Col. Manuel Chavez, the courageous Capt. Alexander McRae, and the flam-
boyant and excessively egotistical Capt. James Graydon. Confederates who have
caught the eye of historians include the heavy-drinking and heroic Col. Tom
Green and the Indian-hating Col. John Robert Baylor.
Articles have described everything from whether the retreating Federals from
Fort Fillmore had whiskey in their canteens in July 1861, as it was widely report-
ed at the time, to exactly who guided the "Pikes Peakers" in the destruction of

1997

401