The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 73, July 1969 - April, 1970 Page: 415

Book Reviews

against the Comanches in 1858 and 1859. In approaching the study,
Havins found that only two episodes of the campaign had been treated
in previous publications, and that no one had examined the back-
ground leading to the campaign or its results.
Professor Havins begins with a description of the conditions of
the Comanche bands and the efforts of the Texas and United States
governments to settle them on a reservation in present Throckmorton
County, Texas. When Comanche bands not settled on the reservations
continued to make raids, the state of Texas sent a successful expedition
north of Red River under Captain John S. Ford to chastise them.
The success of state troops and Indian allies spurred Major General
David E. Twiggs, commanding general of the Department of Texas
of the United States Army, to follow suit with an expedition of the
United States Second Cavalry.
Professor Havins gives the details of the preparation for the cam-
paign and the progress of the troops en route to the scenes of combat.
He describes the battles of the Wichita Village on Rush Creek in
present Oklahoma in October, 1858, and near present Dodge City,
Kansas, in May, 1859. He believes that the campaign demonstrated
the feasibility of winter military activity in the southern plains; that
the army quartermaster, commissary, and ordnance arms were capable
of maintaining supplies over hundreds of miles; that the cavalry
pressured the Comanches into dispersing; and that the campaign fur-
nished experience for future officers of both armies during the Civil
War.
Professor Havins furnishes useful notes at the end of each chapter
and a bibliography at the end of the narrative in lieu of footnotes.
There is no index. The book is marred by a few minor errors. For
example, on page three Havins must have meant that the state of
Texas appropriated twelve leagues of land instead of twenty-four
leagues for Indian reservations.
Midwestern University K. F. NEIGHBOURS
The Way to Rainy Mountain. By N. Scott Momaday. (Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press, 1969. Pp. 89. Illustrations. $4.95.)
Writers never know the impact their literary offspring will have,
and this charming little book, far more than most, surely will say
something to many readers very different from anything the author

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