Frontier Regulars: The United States Army and the Indian, 1866-1891

Macmillan Wars of the United States

by Robert M. Utley

In Frontier Regulars Robert M. Utley combines scholarship and drama to produce an impressive history of the final, massive drive by the Regular Army to subdue and control the American Indians and open the West during the twenty-five years following the Civil War. Here are incisive accounts of the campaign directed by Major General William Tecumseh Sherman—from the first skirmishes with the Sioux over the Bozeman Trail defenses in 1866 to the final defeat and subjugation of the Northern Plains Indians in 1890. Utley's brilliant descriptions of military maneuvers and flaming battles are juxtaposed with a careful analysis of Sherman's army: its mode of operation, equipment, and recruitment; its lifestyle and relations with Congress and civilians.

Proud of the United States Army and often sympathetic toward the Indians, Utley presents a balanced overview of the long struggle. He concludes that the frontier army was not "the heroic vanguard of civilization" as sometimes claimed and still less "the barbaric band of butchers depicted in the humanitarian literature of the nineteenth century and the atonement literature of the twentieth." Rather, it was a group of ordinary (and sometimes extraordinary) men doing the best they could.

Genres: History, American History, Westerns, Nonfiction, American Civil War, Civil War, American

512 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

A specialist in Native American history and the history of the American West, Robert Marshall Utley was a former chief historian of the National Park Service. He earned a Bachelor of Science in history from Purdue University in 1951, and an Master of Arts in history from Indiana University in 1952. Utley served as Regional Historian of the Southwest Region of the NPS in Santa Fe from 1957 to 1964, and as Chief Historian in Washington, D.C. from 1964 until his retirement in 1980.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a hard book to read, as I can only guess it was a hard book to write. The U.S. Army in the West as it fought hundreds of actions with Indian tribes ranging from Sitka, Alaska, to the State of Sonora in Mexico. One could use as one's focus the Westerns, such as the Cavalry trilogy of John Ford, but these cover a limited number of engagements with the Apaches. Then there are the films about Custer at Little Big Horn, but this again was only a single engagement.

On the plus side, Robert M. Utley is one of the most distinguished historians of the American West, including not only Indians and the U.S. Army, but bad guys (Billy the Kid), Indian chiefs (Sitting Bull and Geronimo), law enforcement (the Texas Rangers), and more.

Frontier Regulars: The United States Army and the Indian, 1866-1891 is an overview that spends most of its ink on Indian wars that are not known to the general public, but were equally important in the settlement of the West. Summing up, Utley writes:

In the movement that [Frederick Jackson] Turner traced and that he perceived as a central determinant of American history, the frontier Regulars of 1866-90 had figured prominently. Their part is recorded in more than 1,000 combat actions, involving 2,000 military casualties and almost 6,000 Indian casualties. But other statistics are revealing too. In the year of Wounded Knee four transcontinental railroads spanned the West, where in 1866 there had been none. In 1890, 8.5 million settlers occupied the Indians' former hunting grounds, where in 1866 there had been less than 2 million. The buffalo herds that blackened the Great Plains with perhaps 13 million animals in 1866 had vanished by 1880 before the rifles of professional hide hunters. These figures tell more about the means by which the Indian was subjugated than do battle statistics.

If one is interested in a complete picture, a book like Frontier Regulars is a good place to start, even though it is by necessity dry in its rush to cover the entire field.

[Iain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Utley covers a lot of ground in an approachable, even handed manner. The first chapters are a bit of a grind as they focus on the post ACW army, but the coverage of the "Indian Wars" proper is well done. Although by necessity they are covered at a high level given how many actions occurred in the time span under study.

[Clay Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A first rate book about the history of the Indian Wars.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great look at the American West following the Civil War through the final battle at Wounded Knee which ended the wars against Native Americans and attempts to put them on the reservation system. This book focuses on many of the small flare ups that occurred as the Civil War Army was being gutted and spread thin across a huge frontier to the main battles of Little Big Horn, Geronimo and the Nez Perce. While grand in scope there is a lot of detail here about how the army was organized and supplied to how the Native Americans were organized and inspired to carry out the attacks they did. While not a definitive detailed book on things like Little Big Horn there is enough detail here to place it in the context of the American West. If you are interested in the story of “how the west was won” as the wave of settlement came over the plains then this book is an essential read. Also for those in military history or native American studies they will find tremendous value here. While dry at times it keeps the pace moving and sticks to the high level facts painting a picture of the Army and the plains during this time period.

[Patrick McNamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

He never taught college or earned a Ph.D., but at 90 years old, Robert M. Utley is still the finest scholar of the Indian Wars out there. While he's written excellent biographies of Sitting Bull and Geronimo, Utley has also written what many believe to be the foremost study of the Army-Native American conflicts from the end of the Civil War to the Wounded Knee Massacre, "Frontier Regulars." Although Peter Cozzens's recent survey of the same subject utilizes many new sources, I'd be hard pressed to say he's supplanted Utley's earlier work. This 1973 work by Utley covers all angles of the conflict as regards the U.S. Army. It's intelligent, balanced, objective and fair. There's a reason why it's still in print. If you're interested in the Indian Wars fought between 1865 and 1891, start here!

[Jay Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are looking for a battle for battle guide from the Indian Wars, this is not the book. This book covers government policy towards the Native Americans, overall strategy, and with a cursory look at the individual battles. The book is an overall source book for the period with a good deal about the players above the rank of Captain. I was lead to this source by one of Terry Johnston’s Plainsmen series. His books are fiction, but cover actual battles (his research is meticulous).

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/ 5

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good history of the US Army after the Civil War up to the 1890's. LOTS of info & detail including the political side of things as well as the military. The Indian wars were tragic to be sure, but the hardships the troopers went through (living quarters, food, pay, etc) were pretty rough too. A good read for sure.

[James Violand · Rating 4 out of 5]

The life and times of the military on the Western frontier. The strategies, tactics and surprises used by each side to win the West. The great tribes, chiefs and soldiers are all here. A good read.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A particularly good book on the old Army and the Indiam conflicts. Well written, and sometimes the best stories are buried in the footnotes. Highly recommended.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utley writes about life in the frontier army and the Indian conflicts in the American West in the last half of the nineteenth century.

[happy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably THE starting point for anyone interested in the post Civil War Indian Fighting Army. Very readable and I thought it flowed well.

[Jefferson Coombs · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, along with its companion, is a very good account of the US military in the development of the West.