an Unwritten Leaf of the War
by John N. Edwards
Edited by Conger H. Beasley Jr.
Confederate general Joseph O. Shelby and his legendary Iron Brigade refused to acknowledge Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Instead, they fought their way to Mexico in search of a place where they could continue to defy the United States government. These veteran Missouri calvarymen clawed their way for fifteen hundred miles, fighting Juaristas, Indians, desperados, and disgruntled gringos. Never defeated, they disbanded only when the Emperor Maximilian (the Austrian pretender to an illusory Mexican throne) declined their services. Shelby's adjutant, journalist John N. Edwards, recorded the exploits of this superb mounted brigade and its quixotic final march.
This stirring adventure tale and gem of Lost Cause literature was first published in 1872 and except for a 1964 collectors' edition has been out of print for more than a century. Conger Beasley has written an appropriately lively introduction which includes the first biographical sketch of the author. He has also annotated the text to identify people, places, and events.
". . . [R]ecords the acts and sufferings of a body of men as desperately brave and as wildly adventurous as any whom the world has known. . . . [This is] a story to dazzle the fancy and stir the blood with deeds of desperate valor, with hair-breadth escapes, with splendors of tropical scenery, and horrors of Mexican cruelty. . . . [The] author, after the manner of Victor Hugo, whose style he has taken for his model, has thrown some arabesques of a lively imagination around and among his historical figures." - September 1874, Southern Magazine, The Transactions of the Southern Historical Society"Shelby's Expedition to Mexico is the romantic yet authentic tale of how brave men with brave hopes sought to redeem defeat in one war by victory in another war, only again to lose all save honor. A classic." - Albert Castel, author of Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 (Kansas, 1995)
University of Arkansas Press, Fall, '02
Reviewer: Dr. Victor S. Alpher from Austin, Texas, United States of America
General Jo Shelby's Final Review is re-enacted yearly in Chatfield, a small town near Corsicana, about 45 miles southeast of Dallas, Texas, in April. Shelby was the commander of the Missouri Cavalry Division in what was known as the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War. His men distinguished themselves, often outnumbered, in battle after battle with the invading Yankees.
What is not well-known is that General Shelby did not surrender his forces to swear allegiance to the United States. Rather, he asked, "who will go with me to Mexico?" and led his men south of the Rio Grande, to uncertain futures in a post-Confederate world. These non-political soldiers were weary of the years of deprivation in the Lost Cause. This book chronicles some of their adventures, first told to the author as part of oral familial history of the Iron Brigade. The author met several people in Mexico City in the 1940s who claimed to have witnessed the Last Review.
Those who fought under "Old Jo" intended to maintain their sacred honor and "hatred of oppression" brought about by the invasion of the Southern states by what they felt was a mercenary army--and strangulation through blockade by an distained navy that deprived their countrymen, women, and children of basic necessities of life.
This is very interesting reading to any student of the American Civil War. General Shelby and his men finally found themselves caught in a political situation--the desire of Mexico to maintain peace with the United States after a victory over the French--commemorated yearly in the festivals of Cinco de Mayo (recalling May 5, 1862) across the southwestern U.S.
Their services refused, Shelby's last review was held in Mexico City, the Rebel Yell last heard amongst the ghosts of the Conquistadores, the Cavalry Guidon lowered, the battle flag having been buried somewhere on the border.
These last Confederates dispersed, many going to colonies of expatriates in foreign lands, from Brazil to China. Many could not reconcile to live under the domination of what they considered a foreign occupation, politely called Reconstruction.
A classic belonging in the library of any Civil War enthusiast.
Édouard Manet The Execution of the Emperor Maximilian 1868, Oil on canvas (Musée du Louvre, Paris)
