Many writers have
maligned the trans-Mississippi theater, but John C. Haskell, a Confederate
veteran from South Carolina, wrote one of the most poisonous comments. Here
goes:
“There was so much
less fighting in the Trans-Mississippi area, that, like the one-eyed man in the
country of the blind, anyone who was there was a great leader, and heroes were
almost as cheaply made as in the Cuban War” (Govan, G. E. and J. W. Livingood,
eds. The Haskell Memoirs, New York:
Putnam, 1960, p. 19). The Cuban War, by the way, is a reference to the
Spanish-American War.
I cringe whenever I
read the quote above, but it probably captures the opinions of a number of
folks. Alas…
