Chris Enss's Blog - Posts Tagged "nonfiction"

Enter to win a copy of The Pinks: The First Women Detectives, Operatives, and Spies with the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.


The Pinks is the true story of Kate Warne and the other women who served as Pinkertons, fulfilling the adage, “Well-behaved Women Seldom Make History.”

Most students of the Old West and American law enforcement history know the story of the notorious and ruthless Pinkerton Detective Agency and the legends behind their role in establishing the Secret Service and tangling with Old West Outlaws. But the true story of Kate Warne, an operative of the Pinkerton Agency and the first woman detective in America—and the stories of the other women who served their country as part of the storied crew of crime fighters—are not well known. For the first time, the stories of these intrepid women are collected here and richly illustrated throughout with numerous historical photographs. From Kate Warne’s probable affair with Allan Pinkerton, and her part in saving the life of Abraham Lincoln in 1861 to the lives and careers of the other women who broke out of the Cult of True Womanhood in pursuit of justice, these true stories add another dimension to our understanding of American history.


To learn more about Kate Warne and the other
women Pinkerton agents read The Pinks:
The First Women Detectives, Operatives, and Spies with the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.

Enter to win a copy of The Pinks.

In the spring of 1858 a friendly, two-horse match race attracted the attention of many residents in the town of Atkinson, Mississippi. Mrs. Franklin Robbins and Mrs. R. C. Potter, both guests at one of the community’s finest hotels had decided to see which one of their mounts was the fastest. They had begun their afternoon ride in the company of several others enjoying the balmy air, blooming flowers, and waving foliage of the sunny southern landscape. Exploring a path that led to a bubbling stream, Mrs. Robbins and Mrs. Potter had lagged far behind the party and decided to narrow the gap when talk about who could make that happen first arose.

For a few moments both of the horses the women were riding ran at an uneven but steady pace then suddenly Mrs. Robbins’ horse bolted ahead. Her ride didn’t stop until they reached the business district of town. Mrs. Robbins slowed the flyer to a trot before she glanced back to check on her competitor. Mrs. Potter was nowhere to be seen. Mrs. Robbins backtracked a bit; her eyes scanned the road she’d traveled. Her horse reared and threatened to continue the run but she restrained the animal and pulled tightly on the reins. “Mrs. Potter!” she called out frantically, “Mrs. Potter?!” Mrs. Robbins urgent cries drew the attention of the people with whom the pair had started the ride. They had congregated in front of the hotel when they heard Mrs. Robbins call for help. Not only did the fellow riders hurry to the scene, but men and women at various stores or saloons rushed to Mrs. Robbins’ aide.

Through broken tears she explained what had transpired and asked volunteers to accompany her in her search for Mrs. Potter. Many quickly agreed and wasted no time in following after Mrs. Robbins. She spurred her horse back along the roadway they had just traveled.

The riders spread out in hopes of finding a trail leading to where Mrs. Potter’s mount might have carried her. One rider spotted a woman’s scarf caught in a low hanging branch of an oak tree and made his find public. Tracks near the tree led searchers to believe Mrs. Potter’s horse might have been spooked and out of control. After several tense moments trekking back and forth over field and stream, Mrs. Potter was located. She had been thrown from her ride and was lying motionless in a meadow adjacent to the home of the county clerk, Alexander Drysdale.
Mrs. Robbins rode to Alexander’s house and informed him of what had happened. In less than five minutes he had improvised a stretcher out of a wicker settee and a mattress, and had summoned four of his hired hands to help retrieve the injured Mrs. Potter. She was groaning in pain. She told those attending to her that her head hurt. In a few moments the hired hands had lifted her off the ground and gently placed her in the settee. While being carried to the Drysdale’s home Mrs. Potter complained that her ribs were sore and her back was aching. Mr. Drysdale sent Mrs. Robbins and the other riders on their way and requested that Mrs. Robbins return with a physician. He promised that he and his wife would keep Mrs. Potter comfortable while waiting for the doctor to arrive.

Mrs. Potter was grateful for the Drysdale’s consideration and thanked them over and over again. The hired hands were instructed to put her in one of the guest bedrooms and see to her every need.

When the physician arrived he examined her but could not determine the extent of her injuries. He recommended that she remain in bed and not be moved. He thought she would not have to be confined to bed rest for more than two weeks. Mrs. Potter asked if she could be moved to the hotel, as she did not want to trespass on the Drysdale’s hospitality. Mrs. Drysdale, however, refused to hear of such a thing as the removal of a sick person from her house, and said that she would enjoy Mrs. Potter’s company. Mrs. Potter agreed to stay with the Drysdales until she could move about without assistance.

No one suspected that Mrs. Potter was an operative for the Pinkerton Detective Agency. They had no idea her real name was Kate Warne and that she had been tasked with infiltrating the Drysdale’s home to locate a murderer. As Mrs. Potter, Kate had pretended her horse had been frightened and out of control and eventually threw her, that she’d been deposited purely by chance near the Drysdale’s house and that the injuries sustained in the fall were substantial enough to render her too fragile to move.

To learn more about Operative Potter and the other female detectives with the Pinkerton National Detective Agency read The Pinks.

Enter now for a chance to win a copy of The Pinks:
The First Women Detectives, Operatives, and Spies with the Pinkerton National Detective Agency


Several months before the start of the Civil War, Kate Warne was masquerading as a Southern sympathizer and keeping company with women of refinement and wealth from the South. When war did break out, those women were unafraid to express how much in favor they were of the Rebels. Some of them were secretly supplying the Confederate forces with information they had acquired using their feminine wiles. Kate was tasked with staying close to opponents of the government who were seeking to overthrow it and secure proof that secrets were being traded.
For weeks Kate had been monitoring the movements of Mrs. Rose Greenhow, a Southern woman believed to be engaged in corresponding with Rebel authorities and furnishing them with valuable intelligence. By late August 1861, Allan Pinkerton and a handful of his most trusted operatives, including Kate, had compiled enough evidence against Rose that a warrant for her arrest was granted. She was outraged when Pinkerton detective agents invaded her home and began gathering boxes of secret reports, letters, and official, classified documents. She called the agents “uncouth ruffians” and objected to her home being searched.
Pinkerton and his team left none of Rose’s possessions intact in their quest to extract all suspicious paperwork. The headboards and footboards of all the beds were taken apart, mirrors were separated from their backings, pictures removed from frames, and cabinets and linen closets were inspected. Coded letters were found in shoes and dress pockets. Among the items found in the kitchen stove were orders from the War Department giving the organizational plan to increase the size of the regular army, a diary containing notes about military operations, and numerous incriminating letters from Union officers willing to trade their allegiance to their country for a romantic interlude with Mrs. Greenhow.
According to Rose’s account of the inspection of her house and the seizure of many, sensitive letters, the “intrusion was insulting.” One of the investigators at the scene complimented her on the “scope and quality” of the material found. It was “the most extensive private correspondence that has ever fallen under my examination,” the operative confessed. “There is not a distinguished name in America that is not found here. There is nothing that can come under the charge of treason, but enough to make the government dread and hold Mrs. Greenhow as a most dangerous adversary.”
Pinkerton had hoped to keep the arrest quiet, but Rose’s eight-year-old daughter made that impossible. After witnessing the operatives foraging through her room and the room of her deceased sister, she raced out the back door of the house shouting, “Mama’s been arrested! Mama’s been arrested!” Agents chased after the little girl. Having climbed a tree nothing could be done until she decided to come down.
A female detective Rose referred to in her memoirs as “Ellen” searched the suspected spy for vital papers hidden in her dress folds, gloves, shoes, or hair. Nothing was found. Historians suspect the operative Rose referred to as Ellen was Kate Warne. Kate divided her time between guarding the prisoner and questioning leads that could help the detective agency track and apprehend all members of the Greenhow spy ring. Rose realized quickly that Kate was not someone to be trifled with, and she kept her distance.


To learn more about Operative Ellen, the cases she worked, and the other women Pinkerton agents read
The Pinks: The First Women Detectives, Operatives, and Spies with the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.

Enter to win a copy of The Principles of Posse Management: Lessons from the Old West for Today’s Leaders.

One of the grizzliest battles between outlaws and lawmen took place on September 3, 1893, twelve miles east of Stillwater, Oklahoma, at the town of Ingalls. More than ten people who were situated on the eastern edge of Payne County only a few miles from the rocky retreats and nearly inaccessible wooded areas of Creek County were killed. For some time it had been the spot where a gang of bandits, murderers, train robbers, and horse thieves known as the Doolin-Dalton Gang had made their headquarters.

The two-hundred-fifty people that resided in Ingalls had decided it was better business and safer to accept the outlaws who had overtaken the town than to fight them. In return for not robbing local merchants, outlaws could get drunk in an Ingalls’ saloon without having to shoot their way out, and they could rent a bed in Mary Pierce’s hotel (with or without a girl in it) and not have to worry about waking up with a sheriff’s gun in their chests.
The Doolin-Dalton Gang was the last great bandits of the old West. Bill Doolin and William Dalton worked to together at the HX-Bar Ranch in Oklahoma Territory. In 1891, they decided life as ranch hands was too sedate and traded in their legitimate jobs to rob trains and banks. Federal marshals began pursuing the gang in October 1892, after the daring outlaws attempted a double band holdup in Coffeyville, Kansas. The gang was comprised of more than eight men. In addition to the Dalton boys and Bill Doolin, there were also George Newcomb, alias Bitter Creek, Tom Jones, also known as Roy Daugherty, William “Texas Jack” Blake, and Dan Clifton, alias Dynamite Dick.

To learn more about the great posses of the frontier read The Principles of Posse Management:
Lessons from Old West for Today’s Leaders.

Enter to win a copy of The Principles of Posse Management: Lessons from the Old West for Today’s Leaders.


Sheriff Harry Morse removed a Model 1866 Winchester, carbine rifle from the leather holster on his saddle and cocked it to make sure he had a bullet in the chamber. He surveyed the sprawling canyon deep in the depth of the Panoche Mountain, more than fifty miles outside of Gilroy, California. In the distance below were three, small, adobe houses, and Morse had every reason to suspect members of outlaw Juan Soto’s gang were inside one of the buildings.

High above the sheriff and his eight member posse was a seemingly inexhaustible mat of black, rainless clouds moving steadily across the world. Morse watched the sun disappear behind the billows and exchanged a determined look with Captain Theodore Winchell on horseback next to him. Winchell, an undersheriff from Alameda County, had been riding with Sheriff Morse for several months in search of the fugitive. San Jose sheriff Nick Harris and six other deputies made up the rest of the posse. All the lawmen had years of experience tracking lawbreakers through the northern California terrain. Each was an exceptional shot and could hold his own in hand to hand combat.

Harry Morse had been sheriff of Alameda County for more than nine years. From 1864, when he took the job, to April 1871, when he peered down on the possible hiding place of Juan Soto’s men, Morse had traversed the hills and plains of eastern and northern Alameda County in search of horse thieves, highwaymen, and cutthroats. Until Morse took the job at twenty-eight years of age, most lawmen were afraid to venture too far to catch outlaws. Worried they would be outnumbered the criminals went about their business unconcerned they would ever be apprehended. Sheriff Morse, along with Nick Harris and Theodore Winchell, changed all that.
The officers and their deputies familiarized themselves with the haunts of the outlaws and the topography of the country where the bad guys were known to roam. They learned the locations of ranches, springs, and mountain trails as well as acquainted themselves with the inhabitants and their occupations. They knew where to hide and wait along trails for lawbreakers to pass, and, armed with that knowledge, they knew what to do to avoid an ambush.

Juan Soto, the man Sheriff Morse and his posse were tracking, was a thief and a murderer. He had a reputation as a brutal man who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. Soto mainly operated in the central part of California but, like the other bandits before him, went wherever the possibility of loot beckoned him. For more than four years, the 6’2, two-hundred twenty pound, half-Indian, half-Mexican man had terrorized the area from the Livermore Valley to San Luis Obispo. Soto and his gang of desperadoes robbed stages, stage stops, lone emigrants, and prospectors. Their victims were often beaten or killed. Soto’s dark features and general express of animal ferocity earned him the name “the human wildcat.” He had black, slightly crossed eyes, a mane of black hair, and a bushy beard and mustache. The April 10, 1871, edition of the San Francisco Chronicle described his appearance as the “physical manifestation of as cruel a spirit as ever animated a human being.”

To learn more about the great posses of the frontier read The Principles of Posse Management:
Lessons from Old West for Today’s Leaders.

From the Midwest Book Review
The American History Shelf
Lone Star Books/TwoDot/Globe Pequot
www.globepequot.com

Two fine history books are recommended picks for history collections. Howard Kazanjian and Chris Enss' The Trials of Annie Oakley (9781493017461, $24.95) provides a biographical coverage that focuses on the feisty independent woman who advanced the image of women in American history both through her performances in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show and in her advocacy efforts. The latter - which included advocating for the US military and fighting for orphans - may be lesser-known episodes in her life, but here they are brought to the forefront in an account that reads with the lively immediacy of fiction but gathers a range of facts about Oakley's performances and life.

Bill Groneman's Eyewitness to the Alamo (9781493028429, $18.95) gathers over a hundred descriptions of the Battle of the Alamo by those who were eyewitnesses, and traces the legends, realities and events of one of the most famous battles in American history. Discussions comment on reviews of the Alamo's struggles and add the social and political background necessary to place these events in proper historical perspective. Both are recommended picks for any American history holding.

TwoDot/Globe Pequot
www.globepequot.com

Sherry Monahan with Jane Perkins' The Golden Elixir of the West: Whiskey and the Shaping of America (9781493028498, $24.95) could have been featured in our Food and Wine section, but is reviewed here for its larger and central theme on the shaping of the West and how liquor - whiskey, in particular - played a big role in that history. From the evolution of the saloon business in the booming West to how California merchants became big whiskey shippers and how opulence developed in places whiskey was consumed, this provides a lively and thought-provoking story of the history of booze in the west. Sherry Monahan's Tinsel, Tumbleweeds, and Star-Spangled Celebrations: Holidays on the Western Frontier from New Year's to Christmas (9781493018024, $24.95) provides a lively history of holidays on the Western frontier and covers everything from traditions surrounding gifts and events to songs, poems, decorations and food and drink recipes. These come from firsthand stories of parties and events culled from journals, memorabilia, and newspaper reports, and covers the six major yearly holidays from New Year's and Easter to Christmas and home-cooked to restaurant fare. Few books provide such an inviting approach as this; especially given the wealth of vintage illustrations throughout. Charlie Seemann's Way Out West: Photographs from the Farm Security Administration 1936-1943 (9781493027279, $24.95) provides a lively history of the American ranch in the West, and is a 'must' for any Western Americana collection. While vintage black and white images are the backbone of this discussion, equally powerful and hard-hitting are surveys of dude ranches, individuals in the Farm Security Administration, bunkhouses and automobiles, and more. These are all top recommendations for any holding strong in Western Americana and American history.

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Nighttime overtook the Union Pacific train traveling west from Kansas City, Missouri, to Denver, Colorado, through Nebraska. The straight, single track stretched for miles over the desolate, shadeless, featureless land whose only trace of civilization was found in patches of plowed earth, rich and black, alternating with unfenced fields of young grain, and in a few lonely settlements of a half dozen houses. It was along this section of railroad in late September 1877 that the train relaxed its head long speed to a slower rate. It would run smoothly and steadily toward the water station of Big Springs, Nebraska. The passengers on board would get a respite from oscillating curves and erratic jolts and jars. The journey promised to be fairly uneventful with nothing to see apart from a lone tree in the sleepy town in the far distance.

Just before 10 o’clock, the Union Pacific train stopped in Big Springs. Station employees were not on hand to greet the vehicle as they usually did. Three armed gunmen, Jack Davis, Sam Bass, and Joel Collins, had tied up the station agent and his assistant and locked them in a closet. Before the engineer had a chance to leave the train to find the agent, Joel Collins jumped on board brandishing a weapon and demanded the engineer and the fireman throw up their hands. The cocked six-shooter aimed at their heads persuaded them to do as they were told.

With guns drawn, Sam Bass and Jack Davis boarded the express car and were ransacking its contents when they came upon a couple of safes. One of the safes was partially opened, and a large quantity of gold was inside. The thieves took possession of the gold and turned their attention to a second safe that was locked. Jack ordered the messenger to open the safe. He informed the gunman he didn’t have a key, but Jack didn’t believe him. He slugged the messenger over the head with the butt of the gun then thrust the revolver into the man’s mouth, knocking out one of his teeth in the process. Jack threatened to blow the top of his head off if he didn’t open the safe. All the man could do was shake his head. Sam convinced Jack the messenger was telling the truth and that they should move on.

To learn more about the great posses of the frontier read The Principles of Posse Management:
Lessons from Old West for Today’s Leaders.

Enter now to win a copy of Cowboys, Creatures and Classics: The Story of Republic Pictures

Not so many generations ago boys and girls of all ages flocked to movie houses across the country to watch gallant heroes in white hats outwit sinister bankers or corrupt government officials. They shrieked as lovely damsels in distress dangled precariously on a branch high above a yawning chasm. They cheered when the good guy rescued the frightened female and applauded when the villain in the black hat was hauled off to the hoosegow. Only a handful of Hollywood movie companies in the post-depression era produced such films and among those only one dominated the business – Republic Pictures.

Some of Hollywood’s most notable stars and best known characters of the 30s, 40s, and 50s rose to prominence at Republic Pictures. For nearly twenty-five years the studio produced Saturday afternoon serials starring such characters as Rocket Man, Dick Tracy, The Lone Ranger, Zorro, Captain Marvel and countless “cowboy operas” or singing cowboy pictures starring such well known figures as Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. The studio helped launch the career of the legendary John Wayne, who made thirty-three films for the company, including such notable efforts as Sands of Iwo Jima, The Quiet Man, and the Fighting Seabees.

Under Republic Picture’s majestic banner of an eagle perched high atop a mountain peak, low budget, action films such as Spy Smasher and the Perils of Nyoka were made. Big budget motion pictures such as Macbeth and Man of Conquest were also produced by the company recognized as one of history’s most prolific studios. More than 1,100 movies were made by Republic Pictures during the twenty-four years the studio was in existence.

To learn more about the many films Republic Pictures produced read Cowboys, Creatures and Classics: The Story of Republic Pictures

Enter now to win a copy of Mochi’s War: Tragedy of Sand Creek

Review of Mochi’s War from Library Journal

Historian Enss and Kanzanjian (coauthors, None Wounded, None Missing, All Dead) succeed in personalizing one of America’s most troubling memories, the brutal and unprovoked massacre of a sleeping village of Cheyenne and Arapaho peoples at Sand Creek (present-day Colorado) by troops of the Colorado Volunteers in November 1864. This still controversial military engagement (see Ari Kelman’s A Misplaced Massacre) sets the background in which Mochi, a Cheyenne woman, lost her entire family and barely survived herself, by killing a soldier and then fleeing her camp. She reinvented herself as a Dog Soldier and member of the Bowstring Society, one of the few females to claim association in these elite Cheyenne warrior groups. She remarried, to Medicine Water, himself a military leader, and they in turn brutally raided and avenged themselves on American soldiers and settlers alike for over a decade. The authors have again collaborated to write Western history in an accurate yet accessible manner for mainstream readers. They provide a graphic account of the Plains Indian Wars from 1864 to 1875. VERDICT Highly recommended for adult readers of Western and Native American history, this biographical account provides a counterpoint to the many works that have mythologized such women as Pocahontas and Sacajawea.
—Nathan Bender, Albany Cty. P.L., Laramie, WY

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Enter now to win a copy of the Will Rogers Medallion Award winning book Mochi’s War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek

Colonel John Chivington and representatives of the First and Third Colorado Cavalry rode hard and fast from the sun-touched butte where they’d been waiting at the Indian encampment along Sand Creek. A bugler sounded the charge as the horses’ hooves drummed and the soldiers shouted, reins in their teeth and guns in their fists. Members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes living in the path of the cavalry hurried from their lodges and frantically scattered in different directions. Mothers scooped young children into their arms and ushered elderly men and women to clusters of trees. Braves grabbed weapons in order to defend themselves from the surprise invasion.

Several of Chivington’s troops raced to the paddock where the Indians’ horses were corralled. Without the herd the Indians would be at a disadvantage, unable to pursue attackers or flee from the chaos. Just before the flood of soldiers arrived on the scene, Colonel Chivington urged his men to “recall the blood of wives and children spilled on the Platte and Arkansas [Rivers].”

The full force of the cavalry’s strike yielded immediate devastation. Bullet ridden children fell where they once played; mothers lay dying with their babies in their arms; elderly women and men collapsed from gunshot wounds in their backs. It was a killing frenzy. Some Indians managed to escape without injury and take refuge in thick brush and behind scattered rock outcroppings.

Black Kettle tried desperately to keep his people from panicking. He clung to the belief that the attack would cease when the soldiers noticed the American flag unfurled. He and Chief White Antelope huddled at the base of the flag post. They only ran for cover when they realized the soldiers were hell-bent on annihilating them.

Fearless Cheyenne women and braves stood their ground, refusing to leave without a fight. The men exchanged shots with the soldiers and the women fought using spears and knives, all of which gave members of the tribe a chance to retreat slowly up the dried streambed. Many Cheyenne and Arapaho were killed as they ran to hide in the banks of the Sand Creek.

To learn more about the tragedy at Sand Creek read Mochi’s War.

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