SOURCE: Sepich, John Emil. “‘What Kind of Indians Was Them?’: Some Historical Sources in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.” Southern Quarterly 30, no. 4 (summer 1992): 93-110.

In the following essay, Sepich documents the historical context of Blood Meridian, particularly relying on General Samuel Emery Chamberlain's memoir My Confession.

A number of critics have remarked that Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian is based on “history.”¹ In fact, the dust jacket of the novel's hardcover edition states flatly that Glanton, Holden and “a number of their followers … actually existed, and various accounts of their exploits can be found in chronicles of the period.” An under-informed reading of Blood Meridian is comparable to the kid's question to Sproule, just after their filibustering expedition to Sonora has been devastated by an Indian attack: “What kind of indians was them?” (56). In some ways, the assailant's name hardly matters. But readers of historical novels expect to know such...