F. Stanley (1908–1996)

In some ways the author of The Civil War in New Mexico is more interesting than the topic. Father Francis Stanley was born Louis Crocchiola in 1908 in New York City. He entered the priesthood in 1938; shortly thereafter he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and the Church sent him west in hopes it would be better for his health. Serving in northern and eastern New Mexico, he became fascinated by regional history and began publishing pamphlets and chapbooks on the area – 123 histories of small towns, plus full length volumes on Raton, Cimarron, Socorro, Las Vegas and the Maxwell Land Grant, plus a three volume set on Santa Fe. Alas, while Father Stanley was enthusiastic about his adopted homeland he wasn’t a talented historian and his book were criticized for inaccuracy by professionals when they bothered to take notice at all.


So it is with The Civil War in New Mexico. I didn’t find anything that I knew to be wrong, but the book is poorly organized and difficult to read. Stanley starts out adequately enough, with an account of the Washington debates over what to do with the territory conquered from Mexico in 1848; however once he gets to the Civil War proper things deteriorate – most noticeably he has an account of the Battle of Glorieta Pass, then an account of the Battle of Valverde (which occurred before Glorieta Pass), then another account of Glorieta Pass. About two thirds of the text discusses General Carleton and the California Column, getting down into such details as foraging arrangement and wagon purchases. The California Column soldiers had joined up to fight Confederates (they did get involved in a small skirmish at Picacho Pass in Arizona, the westernmost land battle of the Civil War) but spent most of their time bickering with New Mexico natives over supplies and fighting Navajo and Apache without a lot of success. Stanley goes into this in excruciating detail, with verbatim reproduction of contemporary newspaper columns (New Mexico newspaper editors seemed to be divided between pro-Carleton and anti-Carleton factions) and equally verbatim accounts of after-action reports submitted by various officers campaigning against the Indians. The final hundred pages or so are a list of every soldier in the New Mexico Volunteers.


Fairly dull going, alas, and only of interest if you’re OCD about Civil War history. No illustrations; reference list but no end- or footnotes. One feature I found redeeming was each chapter ends with capsule biographies of most of the people mentioned.… (mere)