E. W. Farnsworth’s western story, “Riders of Picacho,” will be published in February online at the Jotters United eZine, edited by Nick Gerrard.
This story is about the run-up to the farthest-west Civil War skirmish between the forces of the Union and the Confederacy.
At the time (Spring, 1862) the rebels dreamed of a Confederate Empire stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. A critical component of this Empire was the Arizona Territory where Picacho Peak is an ancient landmark shrouded in mystery.
The Union eventually adopted the ideational model of the Confederacy. By defeating the Confederate dream, the nation assimilated it.
The Battle of Picacho Peak, which the Confederacy won, is therefore a circumplex victory because it ultimately achieved the opposite of its intent and delivered the idea of Empire to America.
