MEGAN KATE NELSON
presents
About the Topic:
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 Megan Kate Nelson explains why and how the Far West—Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California—became an important site of conflict between U.S. soldiers, Confederate Texans, and Indigenous peoples. Drawing on material from her book, The Three-Cornered War, Dr. Nelson describes four phases of warfare in this often-overlooked theater, introduces several of the protagonists in her book, and discusses some of the sources she used to write about their wartime actions and experiences.
About the Speaker:
Megan Kate Nelson is a historian and writer, with a BA in History and Literature from Harvard and a PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa. Her most recent book, The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West (Scribner 2020) was a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in History. She writes about the Civil War, the U.S. West, and American landscapes of memory for The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, Preservation Magazine, and Civil War Times.
Dr. Nelson was recently elected as a fellow of the Society for American Historians, “in recognition of the narrative power and scholarly distinction of her historical work." Her latest book book, Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America, was published by Scribner in March 2022.
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