Free event at Pasadena Heritage HQ explores three-way conflict between Union, Confederacy and Indigenous peoples
The Pasadena Civil War Round Table will host historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist Megan Kate Nelson for a free lecture on the often-overlooked western theater of the American Civil War. The event, scheduled for April 22 at 7:15 p.m. at the Blinn House in Pasadena, will explore how the Southwest became a critical battleground involving Union soldiers, Confederate Texans, and Indigenous peoples during the 1860s.
“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,” states the event description provided by the organization.
Drawing from her Pulitzer Prize-finalist book “The Three-Cornered War,” Nelson will outline four phases of warfare in the Southwest, explaining how U.S. troops were able to push the Confederates back to Texas without winning a single battle. The presentation will also cover how General James Henry Carleton’s troops later conducted extermination campaigns against Chiricahua Apaches and Navajos in the fall of 1862.
Nelson, who holds a Bachelor’s degree in History and Literature from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Iowa, will introduce several protagonists from her book, including Carleton, New Mexico Surveyor-General John Clark, and Navajo civilian Juanita. She will also discuss the primary sources used to research their wartime experiences.
The historian’s work “reframes the era as a national struggle involving not just the North and South but also Indigenous peoples and western expansion,” according to biographical information included with the event announcement. Her narrative approach draws on diverse sources including “letters, diaries, military records, oral histories, photographs, and maps.” The book was praised for its “deeply researched narrative that sheds light on an overlooked chapter of American history.”
Nelson taught at several prestigious institutions, including Harvard University, Brown University, Cal State Fullerton, MIT, and Texas Tech University, before becoming a full-time writer in 2014. She is also a fellow of the Society for American Historians and has authored other notable works including “Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America” (2022) and “Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War” (2012).
The Pasadena Civil War Round Table, which hosts monthly meetings on the fourth Tuesday of each month, is dedicated to providing diverse perspectives on Civil War history without endorsing any single viewpoint. The organization relies on donations to maintain its free programming and supports battlefield preservation projects.
The event will take place at the historic Blinn House (Pasadena Heritage Headquarters), located at 160 North Oakland Avenue in
Pasadena. For more information, interested parties can call 626-664-6627 or visit PasadenaCWRT.org.
