The Bozeman Trail

Trail Drive #16

by Ralph Compton (Series Creator), Robert Vaughan

Three daring individuals--James Cason, son of the owner of the Long Shadow ranch; vigilante Duke Faglier; and Revelation Scattergood, a suspected rustler out to build a new life for herself--brave the perils of the trail to drive a herd of cattle from San Antonio, Texas, to the Dakota Territory. Original.

Genres: Westerns, Historical Fiction

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 3, 2002

About the author

Ralph Compton (April 11, 1934—September 16, 1998) was an American writer of western fiction.

A native of St. Clair County, Alabama, Compton began his writing career with a notable work, The Goodnight Trail, which was chosen as a finalist for the Western Writers of America "Medicine Pipe Bearer Award" bestowed upon the "Best Debut Novel". He was also the author of the Sundown Rider series and the Border Empire series. In the last decade of his life, he authored more than two dozen novels, some of which made it onto the USA Today bestseller list for fiction.

Ralph Compton died in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 64. Since his passing, Signet Books has continued the author's legacy, releasing new novels, written by authors such as Joseph A. West and David Robbins, under Compton's byline.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/ralphc...

Reviews

[David Burnworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was just a tad different mostly because the drive was led by a group of men who did not join the dumb battle of the states along with one female who turned out to be a beautiful lady. What started out as a plan to hunt for gold in the Dakotas tuned into a long hard trail drive that ended with success and a marriage but not before many of twist and turns.

[Michael Morrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

It still puzzles me why books written long after Ralph Compton has left us are still credited as by him, even though the real author's name is on the cover.
Maybe some day someone will explain that to me.
In the meantime, "The Bozeman Trail" by Robert Vaughan is a good book.
It ranges over a wide area and several years, dealing with the cattle drive over the title trail as well as the War Against Southern Independence.
There is an error regarding The War: The war was never about slavery. Any real and honest historian knows that. Slavery, as evil an institution as has ever been instituted by any government, was part of the reason for _secession_, but the _war_ was started by Lincoln in order to keep the revenues flowing in from those Southern states.
Author Vaughan does a good job describing the viciously bloody battle at Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh, and his description of the cattle drive seems authentic, except maybe for the elapsed time needed for such a long trip. It's about 1,700 miles so at about 10 miles per day, that's about 170 days, or almost six months.
By the way, the book also brings in the notorious "sheriff" who was actually the chief of the robbers and killers. Some good history.
And all in all a pretty good Western. I recommend it.

[Nolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story. First half is battles of the Civil War in America the last half of several young men who aren’t interested in killing their friends and kin in the Civil War and take cattle up to the Dakotas. One person is a pretty young gal, sister to several brothers on the cattle drive as the cook. There are other parts of the story that are very interesting about some of the young men.

[Susan1566 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an easy read. Big difference from the books written by Compton - shorter, less about the actual trail drive, more on building up to the drive. Doesn’t have the historical facts mentioned at the end of Compton’s books. But I still enjoyed it

[Jerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trials on a trail

Set during the Civil War (or whatever name you want to give that struggle) affected every one on the Drive.

[Peter Charleston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comfortable western reading adventure.