STOUT : Apache lightning (fülszöveg)
In the 1870s, the Ojo Caliente Apaches, led by the brilliant and charismatic warrior and chief, Victorio, took their long last stand against American manifest destiny. For over three decades, Apache, Mexican, and American had fought, fled, murdered, and been murdered.
Assigned by the Federal Government to bring the Ojo Calientes onto reservations, the U.S. Army's black "buffalo" soldiers fought the Apaches without subduing them. Outraged by the failures of the Army, Mexican and American vigilante groups armed themselves against what they saw as the Apache menace. Apache style, the Ojo Calientes raided and plundered frontier settlements on both sides of the border and lured the Army into mountain ambushes along paths and trails they alone could maneuver. The violent backdrop of the area's history helped make the fierce unconditional commitment of the Victorio Campaign inevitable.
For the Apaches the battle was for their land, their freedom, and to sustain a life style centuries in the making. For the Americans and Mexicans the war represented one more step in the fulfillment of their national destinies. As each pledged faith to his own ancestors, a collision of cultures became a war of extermination.
Joseph Stout's even-handed, dispassionate, and honest view of this brutal campaign makes compelling reading. As military history, Apache Lightning is fascinating and dramatic. As a history of an important period in the American West, it is enlightening. As a study of a conflict between races and cultures, it is both a tragic evocation of the depravity of man seeking to rule his fellow man and a paean to the enduring human spirit.
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| KATALÓGUS | TARTALOM |
