The mystery of the Arizona Confederate currency

On this day 150 years ago, an expedition of sixty Confederate Texans captured Tucson, in the Arizona Territory. They met no resistance. The white population in Tucson was pro-South and came out to cheer. The Mexican majority had no strong opinions one way or the other; they just wanted protection from the Apaches.

I lived in Tucson for many years and have always had an interest in Arizona's colorful territorial days. Tucson was only slightly less wild than its neighbor, Tombstone, and Wyatt Earp got into gunfights in both cities. I'm researching a book on Earp for Osprey Publishing, so more on that in a later post.

The band of rebels was led by Captain Sherod Hunter and was the vanguard of an invasion force that was trying to take the Southwest for the Confederacy. Just a week before, the main rebel army had defeated a Union force at the Battle of Valverde, New Mexico. If they could secure the stagecoach route to California, the rebels could avoid the Union blockade that was putting the Southern economy in a stranglehold. There was also talk of establishing a Confederate trading post at the port of Guayamas, 300 miles south of Tucson.

A column of Union troops from California would soon be on its way and would clash with the rebels just outside Tucson on April 15 at the Battle of Picacho Pass, often called the "westernmost battle of the Civil War". The rebels retreated, and Tucson's Confederate days were over.

Once a local historian told me that during his brief stay, Captain Hunter ordered a local printer to issue some Confederate banknotes for the Territory of Arizona. This historian, whose name I can no longer recall, said they are the most valuable Confederate banknotes because they were printed in small numbers and barely got into circulation. I have never seen one and my (rather limited) searching hasn't found any reference to them.

Did these banknotes exist? Were they confiscated by the victorious California column, or is there some hidden cache out in the Sonora desert waiting to be found? There's a story in that. . .


Image of Confederate flag being raised over Tucson courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Civil War Horror gets more than 3000 hits so far this month

Well, my bid to reach 1000 followers on my Twitter feed by the end of the weekend didn't pan out. Despite getting a bunch of cool new followers I reached "only" 996. I'll reach 1000 today or tomorrow, I'm sure. I did reach one milestone over the weekend--this blog passed 3,000 hits for this month! The actual figure as I write this is 3,157 hits, and the month isn't over yet! Of course some of these hits are by bots or by yours truly as I check my blogroll, but still it's an enouraging sign. More people are reading and more people are commenting.

A word about comments. After being threatened by a Neo-Confederate who hated my book without having read it, and the ensuing fallout, I no longer accept anonymous comments. None of the haters had the guts to sign their names and as soon as I instituted this policy they shut up. If you comment, you can still use the anonymous option but you have to sign your name or give a link within the text of your comment.

Back to the Civil War with the next post!

Get me to 1000 Twitter followers!

I'm getting close to 1000 followers on my Twitter feed. When I checked on Friday afternoon (Spanish time) I had 978. Let's get that to 1000 by the end of the weekend! I tweet about travel, archaeology, history, the Civil War (of course), the Horn of Africa, and writing. Every now and then I retweet something off-topic if it strikes my fancy. There's a minimum of tooting my own horn, although of course I do a little. :-)

So drop on by and check it out. If you like it, please follow me. Also check out my Facebook page. I link to all my online writing there so you won't miss anything I do for Gadling, the Osprey blog, or my guest posts.

Thanks in advance!

Civil War Photo Friday: Union soldier of the VII Corps (Department of Arkansas)

This is an unidentified soldier from the Union VII Corps of the Department of Arkansas. The Corps was formed in January of 1864 and got most of its fighting during the Camden Campaign under General Steele.

The soldier carries a "Volcanic pistol" from the fearsomely named Volcanic Repeating Arms Company. This was a lever-action repeating pistol that saw some use during the war although it wasn't as popular as the Colt revolver.

Was this Union soldier from Arkansas, or just assigned there? Although Arkansas was a Confederate state, several Union regiments were raised there. In fact, every Confederate state contributed regiments to the Union army. Support for secession was by no means universal in the South. Desertion was rife and Unionist guerrilla bands operated in many areas. On the other hand, there were Southern sympathizers in northern states, although their activities were limited.

Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Book Review: The Many Faces of Jesse James

The Many Faces of Jesse James by Phillip W. Steele

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


There have been hundreds of books about Jesse James. As far as I know, this is the only one that focuses on what he looked like and attempts to separate legitimate photos of the famous outlaw from the piles of fakes.

This short (128p page) book starts with a potted history of his life and death. This has been done more in-depth in several other books, especially Yeatman's landmark biography. The facts are accurately laid out, though, which is more than I can say for some Jesse James books. There's also a sizable and amusing chapter on the many Jesse James imposters.

Authors Steele and Warfel then move on to the meat of the book--examining the many purported photos of Jesse James, and to a lesser extent his brother Frank, to figure out which are real and which are fake. This is generally well done. I'm not convinced by some of their "genuine" photos, but this just makes the chapter all the more engaging. They also debunk many of the widely circulated fake photographs.

The last section of the book is given over to Warfel's sketches of Jesse at various stages of his life. While these are well done, I don't see much point in them. Many are simply copies of existing photos, such as the famous bushwhacker shot taken in Platte City in 1864.

This book will be of some interest to those who want a deeper understanding of Jesse James and the legend surrounding him. For someone looking for the definitive biography, Yeatman's "Frank and Jesse James" remains the leader in the field.

View all my reviews

Guest blogging over at Osprey Publishing

As my regular readers know, one of my many writing hats is as a military historian for Osprey Publishing. Regular readers will also know that I recently wrote a travel series about Greece. Well, I've put one hat atop the other and write a guest post for the Osprey blog about Oddities from the Athens War Museum. Head on over and check it out!

Civil War Photo Friday: Sterling Price

This week 150 years ago was an important one for the Civil War in Missouri.

General Sterling Price's Missouri Confederate army had enjoyed success the previous year, culminating in the Battle of Lexington, when his forces briefly held a portion of the Missouri River in the center of the state. Supply problems and a precarious position with Union armies to the east and west soon forced him to move south, and he eventually in and around Springfield in the southern part of the state. Now, in February 1862, a large Union army under General Samuel Curtis marched south to push him from the state entirely.

Price realized he was outnumbered and abandoned Springfield on February 12, leaving a rearguard to skirmish with the advancing bluecoats at several points. They held out at creeks, where the thick underbrush reduced the effectiveness of the Union artillery and the creek impeded any Yankee charge. None of these skirmishes lasted very long, however. Their purpose was to slow down the Union advance. Once Union troops and artillery appeared in large numbers, the rebel rearguard would retreat to the next creek and set up another defense.

This rearguard action bought Price some time to close up with a Confederate force marching out of Arkansas under General Van Dorn. All these maneuvers would culminate in the Battle of Pea Ridge on March 6-8. I'll post more on that when the time comes. A good online summary and driving tour of the Pea Ridge campaign can be found at The Civil War Muse.

Price is one of the many historical figures who get a walk-on role in my Civil War novel A Fine Likeness. Jimmy and his band of bushwhackers meet him as he's passing through Boonville during his doomed 1864 campaign to retake the state. There's an excellent biography of this interesting general titled General Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West. You can read my review of it here.