THE GUNS OF VALVERDE

Nagle’s Glorieta Pass (1998) traced the early successes of the Confederate Army that was sent, in 1862, to seize the American Southwest for the Rebel cause. This second installment about the campaign picks up the narrative as the Confederates, yielding to the pressure of Union forces and the collapse of their own expectation of certain victory, begin to withdraw to Texas. Most of the characters introduced in the first novel are present here, including the hotheaded, coolly capable Captain O’Brien, serving in the forces sent to drive the Confederates out; the resilient Laura Howland (whom O’Brien loves), inadvertently caught up in the conflict while fleeing from an oppressive family; the ebullient Kip Whistler, an adventure-seeker who goes on a dangerous (and vital) mission for the Union; and Jamie Russell, the young Confederate soldier who is stubbornly determined to take back to Texas the Union battery seized in battle, the only tangible evidence of Rebel success. Nagle, as before, does a deft job of weaving together the personal struggles of her characters with the broader texture of the war. Her portrait of the brutal campaign itself, of the unforgiving terrain where it was fought, and of the desperate adversaries who mounted it, is clear and gripping. Lively, compelling historical fiction.