Absaraka: Home of the Crows

by Margaret Irvin Carrington

On July 17, 1866, two soldiers and six wagoners were killed by Sioux Indians. In the next two weeks, fourteen more men died in Sioux attacks. The attacks continued through the summer and fall. On December 21, disaster struck. Recklessly pursuing Indians across a wooded ridge, Brevet Lieutenant Colonel William Fetterman and his company fell into an ambush. It was the worst military blunder of the Indian Wars before the Battle of the Little Big Horn ten years later.

 

Margaret Irvin Carrington, like many officers’ wives, kept a journal of her stay in the outposts of the West. She recorded her impressions of the scenery and the inhabitants of Absaraka, in present-day Wyoming, Montana, and the western Dakotas. As the wife of the commander of Fort Phil Kearny, Colonel Henry B. Carrington, she experienced the sequence of events and the heightening of tensions that led to that bloody December day. She could not have known that her journal would come to such a shocking climax, with her husband's career at stake.

Genres: History, Native Americans

284 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1868

Reviews

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a journal so it is rather dry reading material but still interesting. I love the way she writes. For example, on page 219 when she writes about how the eastern media covered the Fetterman massacre: "...and those who never saw a live Indian out of a city show, devised theory upon theory, to the great delight of their own complacent souls and with all the wonderful wisdom of absolute ignorance." Love it.

[Dave Donahoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 1868, the book reads like an encyclopedia entry about the Montana territory. The author details the landscape, animal and plant life and the troubles experienced trying to get to the forts. It’s an interesting first hand account of life on the plains, but, because of the author’s writing style, would likely only be enjoyed by a fan of the American west.

[Michael Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carrington brings an eyewitness perspective to the incidents related, but her accounts need to be seen through the lens of her time and her culture's prejudices.

[Neil Funsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

A valuable and interesting firsthand account of life on the American West frontier in an extremely dangerous time (1866). The Author traveled with her husband who was the commander of the US forces assigned to build the three forts which were to protect an immigrant trail through the last prime hunting grounds of the plains Indians. Many of the Indians vowed to resist and kill any white man/woman who crossed into the disputed territory and they repeatedly made good on their threats. The Fort that the author stays in is repeated threatened by Indians and is the site of a famous massacre of US soldiers with whom she is intimately acquainted. This event takes place in the same general area and about 10 years prior to Custer's Last Stand,
Small groups of people isolated in a dangerous and exposed situation (Especially under military discipline and hierarchy) will form extremely tight bonds and on the western frontier in this period people were often thrown together as travelers and then ordered here or there. As a result there are some longish and tedious lists of names of officers and families who come and go. Despite that and the 19th Century inflated prose this is a worthwhile read for anyone who is interested in first hand accounts of the western experience.

[Wayne Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very difficult read due to the author's writing style. This is a travelogue of Colonel Carrington's wife back and forth along the forts protecting the Bozeman Trail and is supposed to be a defense of her husband's role in the Fetterman Massacre. The book only gives a slight overview of the massacre and spends almost it's entirety describing the scenery along the way and espousing her ascerbic views regarding the U.S. Government.

[Caiden Walls · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is a personal memoir of Margaret Irvin Carrington, who was the wife of Colonel Henry B. Carrington, who was stationed at Fort Phil Kearny during a period of time when the US Army was in conflict with Native Americans tribes from Wyoming, Montana, and the Dakotas. She provides a first hand account of life on the frontier, the harsh landscapes, and key events that include the Fetterman Massacre.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Margaret Carrington was the wife of an army officer posted to the American West. She writes of her perceptions of the Crow Indians and their way of life of the period of the Little Bighorn battle.