About the Book    Reviews    Sample    Order
New Mexico in the Civil War    Timeline 1861 1862

cover
Cover art by Gordon Crabb.
A Forge Book
Hardcover May 1999
ISBN 0-312-86548-1
Paperback May 2000
ISBN 0-812-54049-2
"By geographical position, by similarity of institutions, by commercial interests, and by future destinies, New Mexico pertains to the Confederacy.

—Henry Hopkins Sibley, 1861
GLORIETA PASS Catalog copy:

In 1861, New Mexico Territory is swept by change as the United States erupts in civil war. Federal troops are recalled to the east, leaving the way open for Confederates to invade New Mexico and capture its resources on the way to the ultimate prize: Colorado gold!

Three young people are caught up in the conflict: Alastar O'Brien, a Colorado miner turned soldier; Laura Howland, a young lady from Boston, recently orphaned; and Jamie Russell, a shop clerk from Texas serving as a quartermaster. The maelstrom of war brings them together in a clash of ambition, patriotism, and the simple need to survive.

"This engrossing debut...evokes memorable protagonists, vivid landscapes and high suspense, not only in the gut-wrenching action but in the relationships between her characters."
              --Publishers Weekly               (Read more reviews)


GLORIETA PASS Hardcover dust jacket text :

    P.G. Nagle tells a profoundly affecting tale of the Civil War most people don't know: that of the Western Campaign waged in the Southwest territories of the United States.
    Called the "Gettysburg of the West," the Battle of Glorieta Pass was a key battle in that campaign. Drawing upon actual diaries and other historical documents from the period, Nagle creates an unforgettable novel set against the chaos of battle. Glorieta Pass is the moving story of four people whose lives are inextricably caught up in events that will change a nation and forever alter their own destinies:

Alastar O'Brien, an Irish immigrant miner whose poverty has doomed him to a life of squalor and loneliness, until a friend suggests he volunteer to soldier for the Union;

Jamie Russell, a young Texan whose older brother is already fighting for the Confederacy, who answers the call of duty despite his mother's fear of losing not one, but two, sons to war;

Charles Franklin, a young, wealthy dandy from a moneyed family, desperate to serve the Union, who becomes a lieutenant, despite a terrible secret;

and Laura Howland, a young Boston lady who, recently bereft of her loving father, arrives in the New Mexico Territory just in time to see the shards of her life swept away in the wartime conflagration on the Western frontier.

    With sharply observed scenes of human interaction, electrifying depictions of battles, moments of terrible clarity and exalting acts of human courage and compassion, P.G. Nagle creates a richly textured tapestry of our nation's wrenching cataclysm of self-destruction.



GLORIETA PASS Paperback cover text:

It's called the "Gettysburg of the West," the battle for control of Glorieta Pass, near Santa Fe. At stake is a route to Colorado's gold and San Francisco's unblockadable sea coast, two goals that would give the Confederate States a vital edge. General H.H. Sibley's Texas Confederates are opposed by a Union army under Colonel E.R.S. Canby.
    Before the war, Sibley and Canby were on the same side. Now there's just no winning in this bloody battle between countrymen torn apart by money, politics, and geography.
    History will ignore the fate of Lieutenant Franklin of New York, Captain O'Brien of the Colorado Volunteers, Jamie Russell of San Antonio, and Miss Laura Howland, recently from Boston. They will be utterly changed, however, in the cauldron of battle where the fate of Glorieta Pass--and hundreds of lives--is decided.