Pecos Bill: A Military Biography of William R. Shafter

General William R. Shafter was no gallant hero. He drank, gambled, swore, got into fights with his men. They nicknamed him for the river that was one of his targets: “Pecos Bill.” He was accused of trying to start a war with Mexico and became involved in an embezzlement case. Associated with military blunders during the Spanish-American War, he has often been pictured as a fat, incompetent buffoon.

But Shafter, if coarse and abrasive, was a man who got results. A winner of the Congressional ...