Jerry D. Thompson is the Regents and Piper Professor of History at Texas A&M International University in Laredo and an award-winning historian. A former president of the Texas State Historical Association, Thompson has published over thirty books on the Civil War in the Southwest, including a wide range of acclaimed works, including A Civil War History of the New Mexico Volunteers and Militia; Wrecked Lives and Lost Souls: Joe Lynch Davis and the Last of the Oklahoma Outlaws, and Under the Piñon Tree: Finding a Place in Pie Town.