Frontier Soldier: An Enlisted Man'S Journal Of The Sioux And Nez Perce Campaigns, 1877

by William Zimmer

"Not many enlisted men recorded their adventures in Indian warfare. Still fewer actually kept a journal to lend immediacy to their observations. Frontier Soldier is such a journal, by a literate private who left his story of plains warfare in a chronicle rich in detail. It is the richer for the annotations of Jerome A. Greene, whose understanding of the campaigns in which Zimmer marched is surpassed by few historians." --Robert M. Utley, author of Cavalier in Buckskin: George Armstrong Custer and the Western Military Frontier

181 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1877

Reviews

[John Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this book kept my interest it was short on detail. I was expecting more from the author but I suspect he wrote about what was significant to him. His role in their fights with the Indians was particularly lacking in specifics as to what he actually did. But I did get a real sense of the hardships the soldiers and their horses and mules endured. The depravation of food, water and personal comfort were seemingly non-stop. For me, this was probably the most obvious take away emotion of the book. It's a short read and a good addition if a person is wanting to research an enlisted man's life in the Army during the 1870's.