A Dose of Frontier Soldiering

A Dose of Frontier Soldiering PDF Author: E. A. Bode
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803261600
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Emil Adolph Bode, a German immigrant down on his luck, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1877 and served for five years. More literate than most of his fellow soldiers, Bode described western flora and fauna, commenting on the American Indians he encountered as well as the slaughter of the buffalo, the hard and lonely life of the cowboy, and towns and settlements he passed through. His observations, seasoned with wry wit and sympathy, offer a truer picture of the frontier military experience than all the dashing cavalry charges and thundering artillery in Western literature.

A Dose of Frontier Soldiering

A Dose of Frontier Soldiering PDF Author: E. A. Bode
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803261600
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Emil Adolph Bode, a German immigrant down on his luck, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1877 and served for five years. More literate than most of his fellow soldiers, Bode described western flora and fauna, commenting on the American Indians he encountered as well as the slaughter of the buffalo, the hard and lonely life of the cowboy, and towns and settlements he passed through. His observations, seasoned with wry wit and sympathy, offer a truer picture of the frontier military experience than all the dashing cavalry charges and thundering artillery in Western literature.

Soldiers in the Southwest Borderlands, 1848–1886

Soldiers in the Southwest Borderlands, 1848–1886 PDF Author: Janne Lahti
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 080615845X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Most military biographies focus on officers, many of whom left diaries or wrote letters throughout their lives and careers. This collection offers new perspectives by focusing on the lives of enlisted soldiers from a variety of cultural and racial backgrounds. Comprised of ten biographies, Soldiers in the Southwest Borderlands showcases the scholarship of experts who have mined military records, descendants’ recollections, genealogical sources, and even folklore to tell common soldiers’ stories. The essays examine enlisted soldiers’ cross-cultural interactions and dynamic, situational identities. They illuminate the intersections of class, culture, and race in the nineteenth-century Southwest. The men who served under U.S. or Mexican flags and on the payrolls of the federal government or as state or territorial volunteers represented most of the major ethnicities in the West—Hispanics, African Americans, Indians, American-born Anglos, and recent European immigrants—and many moved fluidly among various social and ethnic groups. For example, though usually described as an Apache scout, Mickey Free was born to Mexican parents, raised by an American stepfather, adopted by an Apache father, given an Irish name, and was ultimately categorized by federal authorities as an Irish Mexican White Mountain Apache. George Goldsby, a former slave of mixed ancestry, served as a white soldier in the Union army during the Civil War, and then served twelve years as a “Buffalo Soldier” in the all-black Tenth U.S. Cavalry. He also claimed some American Indian ancestry and was rumored to have crossed the Mexican border to fight alongside Pancho Villa. What motivated these soldiers? Some were patriots and adventurers. Others were destitute and had few other options. Enlisted men received little professional training, and possibilities for advancement were few. Many of these men witnessed, underwent, or inflicted extreme violence, some of it personal and much of it related to excruciating military campaigns. Spotlighting ordinary men who usually appear on the margins of history, the biographical essays collected here tell the stories of soldiers in the complex world of the Southwest after the U.S.-Mexican War.

The Frontier Army in the Settlement of the West

The Frontier Army in the Settlement of the West PDF Author: Michael L. Tate
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 9780806133867
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
A reassessment of the military's role in developing the Western territories moves beyond combat stories and stereotypes to focus on more non-martial accomplishments such as exploration, gathering scientific data, and building towns.

Class and Race in the Frontier Army

Class and Race in the Frontier Army PDF Author: Kevin Adams
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806185139
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Historians have long assumed that ethnic and racial divisions in post–Civil War America were reflected in the U.S. Army, of whose enlistees 40 percent were foreign-born. Now Kevin Adams shows that the frontier army was characterized by a “Victorian class divide” that overshadowed ethnic prejudices. Class and Race in the Frontier Army marks the first application of recent research on class, race, and ethnicity to the social and cultural history of military life on the western frontier. Adams draws on a wealth of military records and soldiers’ diaries and letters to reconstruct everyday army life—from work and leisure to consumption, intellectual pursuits, and political activity—and shows that an inflexible class barrier stood between officers and enlisted men. As Adams relates, officers lived in relative opulence while enlistees suffered poverty, neglect, and abuse. Although racism was ingrained in official policy and informal behavior, no similar prejudice colored the experience of soldiers who were immigrants. Officers and enlisted men paid much less attention to ethnic differences than to social class—officers flaunting and protecting their status, enlisted men seething with class resentment. Treating the army as a laboratory to better understand American society in the Gilded Age, Adams suggests that military attitudes mirrored civilian life in that era—with enlisted men, especially, illustrating the emerging class-consciousness among the working poor. Class and Race in the Frontier Army offers fresh insight into the interplay of class, race, and ethnicity in late-nineteenth-century America.

The US Army and the Texas Frontier Economy

The US Army and the Texas Frontier Economy PDF Author: Thomas T. Smith
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 9780890968826
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Seventy million dollars in fifty-five years. From Texas' annexation in 1845 until the turn of the twentieth century, the U.S. Army pumped at least that much or more into the economy of the fledgling state, a fact that directly challenges the popular heritage of Texas as the state with roots of pioneer capitalism and fervent independence. In The U.S. Army and the Texas Frontier Economy, 1845-1900, Thomas T. Smith sheds light on just who bankrolled the evolution of Texas into viable statehood. Smith draws on extensive research gathered from both government archives and Texas army posts in order to evaluate the symbiotic relationship between army quartermasters and the economy of the young state. Texas was the army's largest--and most costly--engagement, absorbing up to thirty percent of the total operating budget and channeling that currency into the commercial development of its frontier. Smith expands on historian Robert Wooster's theory that the military was engaged in an alliance with the political authority in Texas, and using documents such as army contracts for freighting, foraging, and fort leasing, he illustrates how federal fiscal activity spurred commercial growth for the citizens of Texas. Besides the obvious development of towns on the skirts of military bases and of roads between them, the establishment of military spending as a bedrock of the Texas economy and the protector of middle class interests shaped the future of the state's commercial prosperity. Writing with exceptional detail and clarity, Smith traces the emergence of the army's influence and includes analyses of information on army spending and development such as the introduction of army weather and telegraph services to the state, as well as accounts of real estate transactions involving the fort building program. Smith also accounts for army failures, maintaining that no one was truly prepared for the reality of western expansion. As an examination of the complex yet mutually beneficial economic relationship between the nation and the state, The U.S. Army and the Texas Frontier Economy, 1845-1900 is ideal for anyone interested in the early days of the state as well as in U.S. military and frontier history.

Regular Army O!

Regular Army O! PDF Author: Douglas C. McChristian
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806159030
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 783

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Book Description
“The drums they roll, upon my soul, for that’s the way we go,” runs the chorus in a Harrigan and Hart song from 1874. “Forty miles a day on beans and hay in the Regular Army O!” The last three words of that lyric aptly title Douglas C. McChristian’s remarkable work capturing the lot of soldiers posted to the West after the Civil War. At once panoramic and intimate, Regular Army O! uses the testimony of enlisted soldiers—drawn from more than 350 diaries, letters, and memoirs—to create a vivid picture of life in an evolving army on the western frontier. After the volunteer troops that had garrisoned western forts and camps during the Civil War were withdrawn in 1865, the regular army replaced them. In actions involving American Indians between 1866 and 1891, 875 of these soldiers were killed, mainly in minor skirmishes, while many more died of disease, accident, or effects of the natural environment. What induced these men to enlist for five years and to embrace the grim prospect of combat is one of the enduring questions this book explores. Going well beyond Don Rickey Jr.’s classic work Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay (1963), McChristian plumbs the regulars’ accounts for frank descriptions of their training to be soldiers; their daily routines, including what they ate, how they kept clean, and what they did for amusement; the reasons a disproportionate number occasionally deserted, while black soldiers did so only rarely; how the men prepared for field service; and how the majority who survived mustered out. In this richly drawn, uniquely authentic view, men black and white, veteran and tenderfoot, fill in the details of the frontier soldier’s experience, giving voice to history in the making.

The American Soldier, 1866-1916

The American Soldier, 1866-1916 PDF Author: John A. Haymond
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 147666725X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
In the years following the Civil War, the U.S. Army underwent a professional decline. Soldiers served their enlistments at remote, nameless posts from Arizona to Alaska. Harsh weather, bad food and poor conditions were adversaries as dangerous as Indian raiders. Yet under these circumstances, men continued to enlist for $13 a month. Drawing on soldiers' narratives, personal letters and official records, the author explores the common soldier's experience during the Reconstruction Era, the Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War, the Philippine-American War and the Punitive Expedition into Mexico.

Regular Army O!

Regular Army O! PDF Author: Douglas C. McChristian
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806159022
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 784

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Book Description
“The drums they roll, upon my soul, for that’s the way we go,” runs the chorus in a Harrigan and Hart song from 1874. “Forty miles a day on beans and hay in the Regular Army O!” The last three words of that lyric aptly title Douglas C. McChristian’s remarkable work capturing the lot of soldiers posted to the West after the Civil War. At once panoramic and intimate, Regular Army O! uses the testimony of enlisted soldiers—drawn from more than 350 diaries, letters, and memoirs—to create a vivid picture of life in an evolving army on the western frontier. After the volunteer troops that had garrisoned western forts and camps during the Civil War were withdrawn in 1865, the regular army replaced them. In actions involving American Indians between 1866 and 1891, 875 of these soldiers were killed, mainly in minor skirmishes, while many more died of disease, accident, or effects of the natural environment. What induced these men to enlist for five years and to embrace the grim prospect of combat is one of the enduring questions this book explores. Going well beyond Don Rickey Jr.’s classic work Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay (1963), McChristian plumbs the regulars’ accounts for frank descriptions of their training to be soldiers; their daily routines, including what they ate, how they kept clean, and what they did for amusement; the reasons a disproportionate number occasionally deserted, while black soldiers did so only rarely; how the men prepared for field service; and how the majority who survived mustered out. In this richly drawn, uniquely authentic view, men black and white, veteran and tenderfoot, fill in the details of the frontier soldier’s experience, giving voice to history in the making.

Five Years a Cavalryman : Or, Sketches of Regular Army Life on the Texas Frontier, Twenty Odd Years Ago

Five Years a Cavalryman : Or, Sketches of Regular Army Life on the Texas Frontier, Twenty Odd Years Ago PDF Author: H. H. McConnell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Frontier and pioneer life
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
Personal narrative of army life from approximately 1867-1871. Includes appendices: The cowboy's verdict, by R.G. Carter (pages 301-306) and Cattle-thieving in Texas, by WWW (pages 307-313).

Captain Charles Rawn and the Frontier Infantry in Montana

Captain Charles Rawn and the Frontier Infantry in Montana PDF Author: Robert M. Brown PhD
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1625855214
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Stationed in Montana during the height of the Indian Wars, Captain Charles Rawn proved an unlikely hero and an indispensable leader in numerous battles. He took command from a drunken Major Baker at the Battle of Pryor's Creek, saving the 400 soldiers from possible annihilation at the hands of 1,000 Sioux. As commander of Fort Missoula, he led 35 soldiers and 200 volunteers in an attempt to halt 850 Nez Perce warriors. When Colonel Gibbon suffered an injury at the Battle of the Big Hole, Rawn's experience and leadership of the 7th Infantry helped prevent another Custer debacle. Author Robert M. Brown catalogues the career of this outstanding officer and the transformation of the frontier army from a Civil War legacy into an elite fighting force.