![]() ![]() ![]() The two of them give us a vivid picture of this untrained regiment of a thousand farmers as they amble west with Gen. Blaine's military facts glow with life because we see them also through Sam's earthy activities as fifer in the drum corps. Taylor is a good historian, and bis narrative device works fairly well when he is dealing with the country lawyer, Doniphan, and his homespun campaign. Blaine is one of those stuffy men who is always brushing amorous females off his lap because he has more serious things to do. The Volunteers’ sacred side is presented by Sam's older brother, Blaine, serving as Colonel Doniphan's reporter. Once again a precocious Huck Finn sort of boy, Sam Shelby, is one of the two narrators, describing all the profane goings‐on behind the barn, as it were. ![]() It revolves around the Mexican War of 1846-48 and the adventures of Alexander Doniphan's Missouri Volunteers as a diversion to the main drive. This time, unhappily, his tale begins to wobble two‐thirds of the way through and winds up in chaos at the end. ROBERT LEWIS TAYLOR, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his delicious novel on the California gold rush, "The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters," has had another bout with history using the same wild, shifty, funny, reckless footwork that made his earlier book so appealing. ![]()
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