General Jo Shelby's March

May 31, 2010
Die-hard Confederate cavaliers take the fight to Mexico in this boisterous post– Civil War adventure. Historian Arthur (Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair) sings the exploits of Shelby, a wily rebel cavalry commander who rejected the verdict of Appomattox and led his 300-man Iron Brigade into Mexico, then roiling with war between the French-backed emperor, Maximilian, and Benito Juarez's republican army. The Xenophonesque trek mired them in another lost cause. Battling Juarista soldiers and Apache bushwackers, they fought their way to Mexico City only to have Maximilian nervously spurn Shelby's offer to raise an army of 40,000 Americans; they then dispersed to various doomed pursuits, including schemes to bring Southern settlers to colonize Mexico. Heavily reliant on the colorful writings of Shelby's friend John Edwards, Arthur's narrative paints Shelby's band as the last paladins. They are forever protecting decent townsfolk against ruffians, fighting duels on points of honor, and making stands against hopeless odds; they even rescued a beautiful American woman from a bandit's clutches. (The author downplays clashing notes, like a Civil War incident in which Shelby's men massacred dozens of unarmed blacks.) Arthur's account is a bit shallow—and the Confederate romanticism a bit thick— but it makes for a colorful picaresque. 8 pages of b&w photos; map.

May 15, 2010
A proficient study of a diehard Confederate cavalry general.

Historian Arthur (Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair, 2006) doesn't disguise his ambivalence toward this hotheaded opportunist who threw his lot into the losing side and gained little, save a reputation as a ferocious fighting man,"the embodiment of certain enduring American characteristics and values." Raised in Kentucky and"groomed as a merchant prince," Joseph Orville Shelby (1830–1897) was offered the chance to serve for the Union after hostilities broke out in 1861. His good friend and fellow Missourian Frank Blair, a Republican congressman, offered him a commission, but Shelby fervently supported states' rights in the bloody aftermath of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, and had been involved in nasty cross-border raids. Indeed, he was already funneling munitions to the Confederates and was soon put in charge of defending the Trans-Mississippi Department, the 400,000 square miles that lay west of the Mississippi. While the federal forces recognized the significance of controlling the river, the Confederacy used the area as a"salvage yard" for dumping"malcontents and incompetents." Shelby's Iron Brigade was effective at the quick attack-and-retreat style in the face of the Union's superior numbers, establishing Shelby's reputation as fierce and reckless. Refusing to acknowledge Southern surrender, he forayed into Mexico in June 1865 with a band of about 300"hard cases on the prowl and bristling with weapons," looking to incite the Mexicans under Benito Juárez against the Union, then switched sides and offered their services to Maximilian and the French invaders, who rejected them. Arthur fashions a dignified portrait of this troublesome character and knowledgeably delves into a little-studied period of post–Civil War machinations with Mexico.

An evenhanded biography of an unlovable figure of Civil War history.

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June 15, 2010

Aside from Civil War buffs, most readers have probably not heard of Confederate Gen. Joseph O. Shelby and his extraordinary life during and beyond the Civil War. Arthur (literature, emeritus, California State Univ., Northridge), who died soon after finishing this book, relates Shelby's life in detail, including how his strong belief in states' rights led him to favor secession and to fight for the Confederacy, heading Missouri volunteers. The end of the war meant an end to the world Shelby knew; with about 1000 members of his Iron Brigade, rather than concede defeat after Appomattox, he headed to Mexico for extraordinary adventures and a proposal to Emperor Maximilian. VERDICT After a beginning whose details may trip up readers, Arthur draws us in as we see Shelby progress from rebellion to defeat to adventure and to reconciliation with the country he once loved. Recommended to anyone who enjoys biographically based Civil War or American history.--Sonnet Erin Brown, Univ. of New Orleans Lib.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2010
A biographer of Upton Sinclair (Radical Innocent, 2006), Arthur takes up a Civil War general for his new portrait. He has chosen a vivid one in Joseph Shelby, a Missouri rope manufacturer turned Confederate cavalry officer whose battles in Missouri and Arkansas Arthur regales as curtain-raisers to Shelbys main act: leading hundreds of his men into Mexican exile in 1865. As Arthur relates, Mexico was then beset by civil war and banditry, exacerbated by French occupation. Into its lawless desert landscape rode Shelby, accompanied by an admirer invaluable for Arthurs astute reconstruction of events: a journalist named John Edwards. Arriving at Mexico City in numbers depleted by ambushes, the Shelby cohort pledged support to the French, received land grants, and embarked on peaceful agrarian pursuits. His irenic hopes dashed by Mexican raids and French withdrawal in 1867, Shelby resumed life in Missouri and reconciled himself to the Union; he was a U.S. marshal upon his death in 1897. Impressed by Shelbys soldierly qualities and adaptability after the war, Arthur fluidly crafts an exciting narrative for Civil War buffs.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)