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Indian War Veterans: Memories of Army Life and Campaigns in the West, 1864–1898
Attendees at the 1927 convention of the National Indian War Veterans Association, St. Joseph, Missouri, comprised former enlisted men and their wives. Two veteran Buffalo Soldiers stand at far left. Others pictured include Anthony Barron (front row, second from right), who served in the Seventh Cavalry in Montana Territory during the 1880s, and former hospital steward Albert Fensch (front row, fourth from right), whose account of participation in the 1878 Cheyenne Campaign appears herein.
- GenresHistory
433 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 10, 2018
I found this narrative fascinating, but also a bit difficult to read. It does not flow well. The editor has collected first-hand accounts of members of the US Army who fought the Native Americans in the post-Civil War west. For the most part he has arranged them geographically. The book roughly spans the years of 1866 to 1898 with the last recorded account of a Native American/Army clash. Most of the accounts were published in the 1920s and '30s in various Veteran's Organization magazines. Therefore, they are for the most part memories of old men and there are some glaring factual errors in location and just who they were fighting. The author, while keeping the original accounts, has attempted to correct these errors, mainly by putting the correct facts in parentheses. The accounts are mainly from enlisted soldiers with some junior officers(Captain and below) and there are even a couple from dependents thrown in. The accounts also cover a wide range of assignments - cavalry, infantry, artillery, medical and even a signal sgt tells his story.
The narrative is definitely not politically correct and Army's foes are referred to as savages, heathens and worse. Also the editor makes no attempt to include Native American accounts. With those stipulations, I found it an enlightening look at the attitudes of the men who "Won the West."
All the well known engagements are related in the accounts - the Washita, Little Big Horn, Wounded Knee, the Capture of Geronimo, as well as many of the not so famous such as the Modoc War in California and the Ute Uprising in Colorado. In addition to the battle accounts, there are interesting accounts of just soldiering in the west. One of my favorites was the account of the transfer of the 5th Cav from southwest Texas to the Dakotas and Montana in 1888. Instead of putting them on a train, the Regiment literally "rode" marched (sometimes there was no road) between 1700 and 2200 miles, depending on the troop, in a little less that 4 months. The tellers of the story don’t say just why the War Department didn’t put them on a train. At the same time the 7th Cav moved from the Dakotas to Kansas and the 3rd Cav moved from Kansas to West Texas. My how times have changed, when the modern army “moves” a unit, they just “reflag” the people located at the location they are moving them to. For example, with the drawdown of the Army after the Cold War, the Army moved the 3rd ID from Germany to Ft. Stewart Ga. Nobody actually moved – the Army renamed the 24th ID to the 3rd ID and deactivated the 24th. The same thing happened after Viet Nam.
As I said above, reading this narrative is not a smooth read. The anecdotes range from a couple of paragraphs to 7 or 8 pages. The writer’s skills are also very uneven. Some flow well while others are disjointed and a bit of a struggle to get through.
When I finished this, I came away with the impression, that while the soldiers didn’t think much of “Indians” as a culture, they highly respected their combat skills.
This is difficult book for me to rate. While I learned a lot about the character of the soldiers who fought the Cheyenne, Sioux, Apache, etc, it was not an easy read. I would rate this a medium 3 star read, but not strong enough to round up. In spite of its problems, it is a definite must read for anyone interested in the Indian Wars of the United States.
The narrative is definitely not politically correct and Army's foes are referred to as savages, heathens and worse. Also the editor makes no attempt to include Native American accounts. With those stipulations, I found it an enlightening look at the attitudes of the men who "Won the West."
All the well known engagements are related in the accounts - the Washita, Little Big Horn, Wounded Knee, the Capture of Geronimo, as well as many of the not so famous such as the Modoc War in California and the Ute Uprising in Colorado. In addition to the battle accounts, there are interesting accounts of just soldiering in the west. One of my favorites was the account of the transfer of the 5th Cav from southwest Texas to the Dakotas and Montana in 1888. Instead of putting them on a train, the Regiment literally "rode" marched (sometimes there was no road) between 1700 and 2200 miles, depending on the troop, in a little less that 4 months. The tellers of the story don’t say just why the War Department didn’t put them on a train. At the same time the 7th Cav moved from the Dakotas to Kansas and the 3rd Cav moved from Kansas to West Texas. My how times have changed, when the modern army “moves” a unit, they just “reflag” the people located at the location they are moving them to. For example, with the drawdown of the Army after the Cold War, the Army moved the 3rd ID from Germany to Ft. Stewart Ga. Nobody actually moved – the Army renamed the 24th ID to the 3rd ID and deactivated the 24th. The same thing happened after Viet Nam.
As I said above, reading this narrative is not a smooth read. The anecdotes range from a couple of paragraphs to 7 or 8 pages. The writer’s skills are also very uneven. Some flow well while others are disjointed and a bit of a struggle to get through.
When I finished this, I came away with the impression, that while the soldiers didn’t think much of “Indians” as a culture, they highly respected their combat skills.
This is difficult book for me to rate. While I learned a lot about the character of the soldiers who fought the Cheyenne, Sioux, Apache, etc, it was not an easy read. I would rate this a medium 3 star read, but not strong enough to round up. In spite of its problems, it is a definite must read for anyone interested in the Indian Wars of the United States.
February 17, 2017
This is a wonderful reference of primary sources from mainly enlisted soldiers who served mainly in the army during the Indian Wars. It's a great resource for information about a rarely considered and now reviled time in the history of the United States. It's not meant for leisure reading. Or I suppose one could. But you'll have several different account of the same battle or event, which as leisure reading can get a bit boring, but is PRICELESS when one is trying to write an academic paper or figure out what REALLY happened. However, as a reference for those interested in this era or military history, or Native American history from the perspective of the U.S. Military, it is second to none.
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December 27, 2015The Indian Wars live in most Americans' minds in the pictures they've seen in books or in the movies. This book tells the real stories in the voices of men who lived them.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews