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Book Reviews These are some reviews from a recent issue of
The Civil War News:
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A History of Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas: Being an Account of the Early Settlements, the Civil War, the Ku Klux, and Times of Peace
by William Monks.
Edited by John F. Bradbury Jr. and Lou Wehmer. Illustrated, map, notes, index, 194 pp., 2003. The University of Arkansas Press, 201 Ozark Ave., Fayetteville, AR 72701, $29.95 plus shipping.
Nowhere was the Civil War more bitter and vicious than in Missouri and Arkansas. There — es-pecially in the region along the middle border between those states — regular troops, volunteer units of various kinds, guerrillas, militia, partisans, “a complex and changing mixture of homegrown organizations,” ad hoc groups of irregulars, deserters, criminals, and other assorted bad guys waged a brutal war against each other and the area’s civilians. That struggle went on long after the “formal” fighting ended in the spring of 1865. William Monks was in the middle of this turmoil. A native of Alabama, he was living in southern Missouri when the war broke out. Confederate forces arrested him in July 1861 and forced his family to become refugees. When Monks escaped, he went to work as a guide for Union troops. Soon he received a commis-sion as a second lieutenant in the 63rd Missouri Militia. When the 16th Missouri Volunteer Cavalry was organized in September 1863, he became captain of Company K of the regiment. Monks and his men participated in the bitter small unit actions in the area until their unit mus-tered out of service in June 1865. A short time later Monks was commissioned a major in the Missouri militia, and he and his men undertook a long battle against such terrorist organizations as the Ku Klux Klan in both Missouri and Arkansas. Officials in the latter state even made him an officer in their militia when he led his troops over the border to fight the Klan there (1868-1869). Monks wrote this somewhat disjointed account of his 1860-c. 1875 military, political, and legal battles in 1907, six years before his death. The editors have provided a fine introduction and an index for this edition. The only map, unfortunately, is virtually useless. Civil Warriors who have an interest in the area will want to read this volume in “The Civil War in the West” Series. Those drawn to the “informal” (or guerrilla) side of the war’s military history will also find it of value. The book, however, is not likely to have much appeal for others.
Richard McMurry
Richard McMurry is the au-thor of John Bell Hood And The War For Southern Inde-pendence and Two Great Rebel Armies: An Essay In Confederate Military History. His latest book is The Fourth Battle of Winchester: Toward a New Civil War Para-digm.
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