Customer Reviews:
 Contributions to the USA and CSA during the Civil War February 26, 2003
Mr. Calder (Redwood City, CA United States)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
The book Vaqueros in Blue and Gray provides an insightfully resource of the contributions made by Hispanics to both the United States of America (USA) and the Confederate States of America (CSA) during the American Civil War. From an Anglo standpoint, I feel that this book better helps Civil War researchers better understand the Civil War and the contributions made by Mexicans and others with surnames like Sanchez, Martinez, and Moreno to both the CSA and USA.
An important, unique contribution to Civil War studies. July 3, 2000
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This history of Hispanic involvements in the Civil War includes the first comprehensive list compiled over Confederate and Union Hispanic participants who served, providing a history which will particularly appeal to students of Texas state history. Vaqueros in Blue & Gray originally appeared in 1976; this new edition provides a new introduction, foreword, and the list of participants.
 Introduction to Trans-Nississippi Civil War July 1, 2008
Barrie W. Bracken (Daytona Beach, FL)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Thompson's book will not interest the casual Civil War reader. The book is limited to the Mexican-American Texans who fought for the Union and the Confederacy, but it covers no major battles. Better writing would help immensely, but the author cannot be faulted on his research. As you read through it you are introduced or reintroduced to many characters with whom you may or may not be familiar, but you will find them interesting: Santos and Refugio Benavides, John "RIP" Ford, Jose A. Quintero (Confederate agent in Mexico), Adrian Vidal, and for me the most important figure, Edmund Jackson Davis. For those interested the book concludes with an appendix of 126 pages lists the Tejanos and Mexicans who fought for the Union and the Confederacy.
The book begins with the secession of Texas where in Corpus Christi John Ford and Edmund Davis are contesting for a seat in the state convention. Some historians contend when Davis lost the election to Ford he became a Unionist.
This turn of events laid the groundwork for one of the most interesting and decisive Civil War battles fought in Texas. In October 1862, a total of 72 Texas unionists landed in New Orleans under the command of Union Colonel Edmund Davis and later embarked for Galveston, Texas. The troopship was a part of the flotilla meant to capture Galveston and move in land but they were stopped and what has been called the Confederate Thermopylae, the battle of Sabine Pass. If any readers are unacquainted with this battle I strongly suggest you read some of the descriptions available to see how a small Confederate force destroyed some ships and turned back this Union armada. The book continues with stories of the skirmishes between the Mexican Texans and the Union forces.
One of the most interesting characters portrayed in this book, one pretty much ignored by many historians, is the Rio Grande nemesis of the Confederate forces, Judge Edmund Jackson Davis. Davis was born in St. Augustine Florida, a childhood companion of Edmund Kirby Smith, acquainted with William Loring. As best we can tell Ed as a young teen moved with his mother to the Texas coast. Davis went into politics, became a judge, and when he defeated by Rip Ford in the elections selecting representatives at the secession convention, he amazingly became a Union man. When the war broke out Davis went to Mexico to recruit volunteers for Union cavalry unit. He was captured by Confederate Texans in Mexico and brought back to Texas soil which he was supposed to fertilize following his execution. Intervention of his wife saved him and he was allowed to go to New Orleans from which he moved to Galveston harbor where he and the Navy failed miserably.
The exploits of the Texas Mexicans are covered in this small volume in a minor way, but you can get through it, it serves as an introduction to these characters. There is only 125 pages of actual text in the print shares leaves with numerous line drawings and photographs. Readers will not find any great depth in this book but hopefully it may act as an introduction to whet the appetite for the trans-Mississippi Civil War, an area far too neglected by most mainstream historians.
I would really like to give this book more than three stars I think I stretched the point with even that many. Suffice it to say that unless you are really interested in the book is not worth its price.
 This book adds little value to Civil War research January 19, 1999
Wayne Collier
6 out of 14 found this review helpful
The author focuses on Texas-Mexicans, who enlisted in the Union and Confederate armies. No grand motives were involved. The enlistees joined for a variety of reasons: bonus money, clothing, food, escape from a ruthless peonage system, and because of a paternalistic tradition stemming from their Mexican heritage. Regardless, the Texas-Mexican committment was weak throughout the Civil War. An exception was the Benavides brothers, particularly, Santos, who was the highest ranking Texas-Mexican in either army.While American-Mexican soldiers served in various state units - Alabama, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Vermont, et. al., this book is about the Texas-Mexicans who served along the Rio Grande River, dividing Texas and Mexico. In the course of their service, these confederate soldiers were chiefly involved in border incidents, fighting bandits, chasing rustlers, etc. It's clear Texas officials used Texas-Mexican soldiers not to fight the Union but to protect Texas land and property. Approximately 2600 Texas-Mexicans served the South and 950 served the Union. The illiteracy rate for Texas-Mexicans was as high as 95% and their lack of English kept them in the lowest ranks throughout the war. Of the 62 men in one confederate regiment, only 3 were born in Texas. Many had been born in Mexico and ranged in age to 50 years. The Texas-Mexicans thought of their army service as a job through which they could send money to their families in Mexico - an early Bracero program. When pay and morale deteriorated, the Texas-Mexicans deserted the confederate and union armies. They simply rode out of camps carrying clothing, arms, and riding the best horses. The desertion rate was of serious concern. In some units it ran as high as 100%, as Captain Adrian Vidal's "Independent Partisan Union Rangers" deserted in its entirety. Prejudice against the Texas-Mexicans soldiers was overt and contributed to the desertion rate. One officer's comment is pertinent, "I consider them (Texas-Mexicans) as dishonest, cowardly, and treacherous." His feelings were supported by many Anglos in both armies. In this context, the Texas-Mexicans were given old and outdated arms and scrub horses - those not considered good enough for other army units. The author knows the framework of his subject. Where he fails is in trying to put the results of his knowledge into a semblance of lucidity. The book is hard to read and doesn't hold a casual reader's interest. There is no explanation of the relationship of the battles described to the overall strategy of the South. Further, there are no maps with which to follow the battles narrated by the author. Another defect is that there are no accounts of the daily lives of the Texas-Mexican soldiers: how they behaved under fire, what they ate, what they thought, how they spent their leisure time, and so forth. The book is also cluttered with footnote references as if the author believed 271 footnotes bestowed literary merit on 120 pages of text. The index is rudimentary and of limited value to the reader. In the author's defense, he obviously did a lot of research. However, no writer can enlighten a subject when the subject is presented with little form and substance. The military events in the Civil War numbered 10,455 which doesn't include naval actions or countless other scrapes and clashes that didn't find their way into official records. This book adds nothing to the history of the "Vaquero" and does a disservice to Texas-Mexicans by denigrating their will to survive despite the foolishness foisted on them by the Anglos. One irony that escapes the author is that the war between the states may have ended slavery in the United States but the Texas-Mexicans who fought in the Civil War continued in peonage well into the 20th century. They lived as they did before the war, clustered in small villages along the muddy waters of the Rio Grande, many in poverty, and many others suppressed economically and politically. More than 60,000 books, monographs, pamphlets, et. al., have been written about the Civil War in all its aspects. This book adds little value to that vast body of work.
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