The Second Colorado Cavalry: A Civil War Regiment on the Great PlainsDuring the Civil War, the Second Colorado Volunteer Regiment played a vital and often decisive role in the fight for the Union on the Great Plains—and in the westward expansion of the American empire. Christopher M. Rein’s The Second Colorado Cavalry is the first in-depth history of this regiment operating at the nexus of the Civil War and the settlement of the American West. Composed largely of footloose ’59ers who raced west to participate in the gold rush in Colorado, the troopers of the Second Colorado repelled Confederate invasions in New Mexico and Indian Territory before wading into the Burned District along the Kansas border, the bloodiest region of the guerilla war in Missouri. In 1865, the regiment moved back out onto the plains, applying what it had learned to peacekeeping operations along the Santa Fe Trail, thus definitively linking the Civil War and the military conquest of the American West in a single act of continental expansion. Emphasizing the cavalry units, whose mobility proved critical in suppressing both Confederate bushwhackers and Indian raiders, Rein tells the neglected tale of the “fire brigade” of the Trans-Mississippi Theater—a group of men, and a few women, who enabled the most significant environmental shift in the Great Plains’ history: the displacement of Native Americans by Euro-American settlers, the swapping of bison herds for fenced cattle ranges, and the substitution of iron horses for those of flesh and bone. The Second Colorado Cavalry offers us a much-needed history of the “guerilla hunters” who helped suppress violence and keep the peace in contested border regions; it adds nuance and complexity to our understanding of the unlikely “agents of empire” who successfully transformed the Central Plains. |
Contents
The Death of the Confederate Empire | |
Triracial Warfare in the Borderlands | |
Hybrid Warfare on the Frontier | |
Pacifying the Plains | |
Other editions - View all
The Second Colorado Cavalry: A Civil War Regiment on the Great Plains Christopher M. Rein Limited preview - 2020 |
The Second Colorado Cavalry: A Civil War Regiment on the Great Plains Christopher M. Rein No preview available - 2020 |
Common terms and phrases
American Arapahos Arkansas River army arrived Battle Bloody Trails Blunt bushwhackers camp campaign Canby Capt Captain Cheyennes Chivington Civil CMSR Colonel Ford Colorado Territory Colorado Volunteers Comanches command Confederate County Curtis Denver district Dodd Dodd’s company Dodge east enlisted force Ford’s Fort Craig Fort Garland Fort Larned Fort Leavenworth Fort Lyon Fort Riley Fort Zarah garrison guerrillas History horses Ickis Indian Home Guards Indian Territory John July June Kansas Cavalry Kansas City killed Kiowas Larned later Leavenworth Lieutenant Lyon March Mexico miles military Missouri mounted Mumey mustered October Oklahoma Press ordered patrol plains Platte Pleasant Hill Price’s Pritchard raid rebel recruiting regiment region reported Riley Rocky Mountain route Sand Creek Sand Creek Massacre Santa Fe Trail scout Second Colorado Cavalry Smith Soldier’s Letter soldiers southern Stanton Texans Texas troopers troops Union University of Oklahoma wagons West William wounded wrote Zarah