With the California Column: Against Confederates and Hostile Indians During the American Civil War, Pettis George H.

The story of the California Column is one of the most remarkable of the American Civil War. Whilst the war was one of a nation divided, each side was not a geographical whole. Much of the war was fought in the east but the vastness of the continent meant that both sides held territory far to the West, separated from their principal forces and seats of government by the American wilderness. In 1862 a force of Union volunteers marched some 900 miles from California to take the war to the Confederacy in New Mexico and western Texas. At the time it was the longest march ever attempted through desert by the U.S Army. Inevitably this incursion into the wild lands of the frontier brought the force into contact and collision with another enemy-the fierce warriors of the Indians of the south western plains. The author of this book was a serving officer of the California Column and he left three separate pieces about his experiences, which have been gathered together in this single volume special Leonaur edition. Of special note is the detailed account of the action now known as the First Battle of Adobe Walls. Near the site of the epic siege by buffalo hunters against Quanah Parker after the war, California Column troops under the command of the legendary Kit Carson held off a vastly numerically superior force of Comanches and Kiowas. Pettis was in command of the units howitzers and it is considered that his actions and the influence of artillery probably saved the Union force from annihilation. Available in softcover and hardcover with dustjacket.