Kit Carson Part II: Excerpts from "Blood and Thunder"

I've just finished reading Hampton Sides' Blood and Thunder:  The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquests of the American West.  All I can say is "Wow."  I really encourage you to go out and pick up a copy.  Here are some excerpts from this incredible book.

"Carson was present at the creation, it seemed.  He had witnessed the dawn of the American West in all its vividness and brutality.  In his constant travels he had caromed off of or intersected with nearly every major tribal group and person of consequence.  He had lived the sweep of the Western experience with a directness few other men could rival."

"Yes, Christopher Carson was a lovable man.  Nearly everyone said so.  He was loyal, honest, and kind.  In many pinpointable incidents, he acted bravely and with much physical grace.  More than once, he saved people's lives without seeking recognition or pay. He was a dashing good Samaritan -- a hero, even.

"He was also a natural born killer.  It is hard to reconcile the much-described sweetness of his disposition with his frenzies of violence.  Carson could be brutal even for the West of his day (a West so wild it lacked outlaws, for no law yet existed to be outside of).  His ferocious temper could be triggered in an instant.  If you crossed him, he would find you.  He pursued vengeance as though it were something sacred with a kind of dogged focus that might be called tribal--his tribe being the famously grudge-happ Scotch-Irish."

The sweeping story that Sides tells includes how Kit Carson was involved in the American take-over of New Mexico, his presence at the major battles fought against the Mexican army in California, and how he chose the Union side in the Civil War and his leadership during the Western-most battles of that war in New Mexico. 

There are many sources of reliable information about the man, but the ones that touch my heart are Sides' factual biography and Willa Cather's fictional biography Death Comes for the Archbishop.  Her inclusion of Carson in the story was telling of how important he was to the "respectable" class in the New Mexico territory.  The lead character seeks out Carson and ultimately develops a close personal relationship with the man who so many believed was a giant among men.  She includes a story of how he assisted in a rescue that saved lives but never sought recognition or payment for that act.