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JOIN US ON TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2025 AT 7:15 P.M. (Pacific Time)
FOR A PRESENTATION ON:
"THE THREE-CORNERED WAR: THE FIGHT FOR THE AMERICAN WEST IN THE 1860'S"
WITH Megan Kate Nelson, Historian and Author
In the summer of 1861, Confederate troops invaded New Mexico from Texas, hoping to conquer that territory and then launch a campaign to win the entire West. In this talk, historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist Megan Kate Nelson will explain why and how the desert Southwest—New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California—became an important site of conflict between U.S. soldiers, Confederate Texans, and Indigenous peoples during the American Civil War.
Drawing on material from her book, The Three-Cornered War (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History in 2021), Dr. Nelson will describe four phases of warfare in this often-overlooked theater, explaining how U.S. troops were able to push the Confederates back to Texas without winning a single battle. She will then talk about how, in the fall of 1862, U.S. troops under General James Henry Carleton turned their attention to extermination campaigns against Chiricahua Apaches and Navajos. She will introduce several of the protagonists in her book—including Carleton, New Mexico Surveyor-General John Clark, and the Navajo civilian Juanita—and discuss several of the sources she used to write about their wartime actions and experiences.
Megan Kate Nelson is an historian and writer based in Boston, with a BA from Harvard and a PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa. She is the author of four books, including Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America (Scribner 2022; winner of the 2023 Spur Award for Historical Non-Fiction) and The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West (Scribner 2020; 2021 Pulitzer Prize finalist in History). Dr. Nelson writes about the Civil War, the U.S. West, and American culture for The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, Slate, and TIME. She is the 2024-2025 Rogers Distinguished Fellow in Nineteenth-Century American History at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.
We have a "Book Buying Partnership" with our local, Pasadena treasure, Vroman's Bookstore. If you would like to pre-order Dr. Nelson's book using this link, it will be available for you at the April 22 meeting where Dr. Nelson can sign it for you. And there are no shipping charges to pay!
Please be sure to follow all instructions on the order page so that your book will be ready for you at the meeting.
Orders must be placed no later than April 15.
VROMAN'S PURCHASE LINK
Southern California's Oldest & Largest Independent Bookstore
Vroman’s Bookstore is the official supplier of speakers’ books for the Pasadena Civil War Round Table.
Thanks to the volunteer efforts and expertise of our Pasadena CWRT members, Tina Miller and Monika Skerbelis, we are now able to record our monthly meetings and post the videos to our YouTube Channel for your enjoyment and edification if you are unable to join us for our live meetings. We invite you to check out the videos from our two years of virtual meetings, as well as our most recent presentations, at our YouTube Channel:
CLICK HERE
We are indebted to Tina and Monika for helping us to bring this wonderful added benefit to allow our non-local members and guests to enjoy the presentations of our distinguished roster of speakers.
PLEASE JOIN US FOR OUR IN-PERSON MEETING:
Pasadena CWRT - TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2025 - 7:15 PM (Pacific Time)
The Blinn House - 160 North Oakland Avenue - Pasadena
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