Texas and New Mexico on the Eve of the Civil War

[The Elderly Kid]

I just found a fascinating book: Texas and New Mexico on the Eve of the Civil War: the Mansfield and Johnston Inspections.  It's edited by Jerry Thompson and published by the University of New Mexico Press.  From 1859 to 1861 colonel Joseph Mansfield and Lt. colonel Joe Johnston were sent on an inspection tour of all the forts in the Texas and New Mexico departments. It is full of fascinating detail and includes heir own drawings among other illustrations. If you want to know if the parade ground at Ft. Davis had shade or if the roofs leaked, this is the book for you. I love this kind of stuff. Johnston lets you know if the fort has a library (most did) and how much money was in the company fund. You learn if the baker could make decent bread and what shape the caissons were in. A truly unique time capsule of life in the southwestern forts just before the Civil War. Mansfield was killed at Antietam. Johnston survived the war.