I agree, the Steve Cottrell book is very well done. That is why I was so surprised with the Bird book. It is filled with one mistake after the other. It is almost as if he just made things up. For instance, on page 64, Bird claims that early on, President Lincoln “acquiesced” to pressure from Lane to bring black men into the army. This is simply not the case. Bird also states that Lane “threatened to use any opponents to his recruiting as cooks for the black regiments.” This is funny; because Lane was going around telling all the white troops that the newly enlisted blacks would serve as cooks for the white soldiers. On pages 68-69 Bird claims that Upton Hays was in overall command at Lone Jack. He probably never heard of Cockrell. Bird writes on page 73, that Hays was killed at the battle of Newtonia. This is wrong; the battle took place on September 30, 1862. Hays was killed around September 15, near Newtonia. The list of mistakes just goes on and on. Bird would have us believe that Major General John M. Schofield was a Kansas boy! Bird claims that Ewing “established” Fort Blair in Baxter Springs. The new post was the brainchild of Major Henry Curtis and was not even in Ewing’s District. Bird writes that prior to the Baxter Springs massacre, the post was “garrisoned by about a hundred white and African-American solders from a couple of Kansas regiments.” (see pages 110-111) In reality, the white troops were all from the 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry. Bird did not even use the few books he listed in his bibliography! He just made it up! One of the most egregious mistakes is on page 139, where Bird maintains that the Confederate forces at the battle of Mine Creek launched their own massive charge against the Union forces. Once again, he just made it up. When the title of your book is “Civil War Kansas” one would assume you would at least know the minor details about the only formal battle fought in Kansas during the Civil War!