Canby in New Mexico, unknown to the secessionists of California,
aided by Kit Carson, gathers a force to strike Sibley in flank.
It is fatal to Californian conquest. Hardin and Valois learn of
the lethargy of the great Confederate army, flushed with success.
Sibley's dalliance at Fort Bliss continues.
The "army of New Mexico," on September 19, 1861, is only a few
hundreds of mounted rangers and Texan youth under feeble Sibley.
From the first, Jefferson Davis's old army jealousies and hatred
of able men of individuality, hamstring the Southern cause.
A narrow-minded man is Davis, the slave of inveterate prejudice.
With dashing Earl Van Dorn, sturdy Ben Ewell, and dozens of veteran
cavalry leaders at his service, knowing every foot of the road,
he could have thrown his Confederate column into California. Three
months after Sumter's fall, California should have been captured.
Davis allows an old martinet to ruin the Confederate cause in the
Pacific.
The operation is so easy, so natural, and so necessary, that
it looks like fatuity to neglect the golden months of the fall of
1861.
Especially fitted for bold dashes with a daring leader, the Texans
throw themselves, later, uselessly against the flaming redoubts
of Corinth.
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