The last thirty-five years of the nineteenth century were a time of dramatic change for the U.S. military, including the Reconstruction of the South after the Civil War; fighting the Indian Wars of 1865 through 1890; and shifting military personnel concerns and increased responsibilities, including law enforcement, protection of the National Parks, and border patrols. As the century's end neared, the army faced increasing retrenchment and increased advocacy for veteran's causes when the Civil War veteran population aged. This book illustrates the lives of the average soldier and his...
The last thirty-five years of the nineteenth century were a time of dramatic change for the U.S. military, including the Reconstruction of the Sout...
Books, art, and movies most often portray the frontier army in continuous conflict with Native Americans. In truth, the army spent only a small part of its frontier duty fighting Indians; as the main arm of the federal government in less-settled regions of the nation, the army performed a host of duties. "The Frontier Army in the Settlement of the West" examines the army's nonmartial contributions to western development. Dispelling timeworn stereotypes, Michael L. Tate shows that the army conducted explorations, compiled scientific and artistic records, built roads, aided overland...
Books, art, and movies most often portray the frontier army in continuous conflict with Native Americans. In truth, the army spent only a small par...
Until their final military defeat in the Red River War of 1874 and subsequent removal to western Oklahoma reservations, Indian peoples played a major role in all phases of southern Plains history, yet no systematic bibliographical tool has ever been compiled to identify the diverse published source materials about their cultures and histories. This bibliography, including 3,791 entries, not only lists the monographic and journal citations but also assesses the quality and reliability of most of these sources. Furthermore, it includes tribes ranging from the well-known Comanche, Kiowa, Caddo,...
Until their final military defeat in the Red River War of 1874 and subsequent removal to western Oklahoma reservations, Indian peoples played a major ...
While occupying the center of the continental United States, the state of Nebraska remains outside the comprehension of most Americans. Contrary to the popular image of a flat, treeless landscape from horizon to horizon, the state offers a variety of topography. It has long supported a mixed economy of agriculture, livestock production, and industry. In its historical development, it has embraced a strong frontier tradition alongside a modern fusion of sophisticated city life and state-of-the-art agribusiness. This bibliography--the first systematic bibliographical tool ever assembled for...
While occupying the center of the continental United States, the state of Nebraska remains outside the comprehension of most Americans. Contrary to...
David Royce Murphy Michael L. Tate Michael Farrell
Long before Hollywood brought the landscapes of the American West to movie screens, clever impresarios invented ways of simulating the experience of western travel and selling it to mass audiences. In 1851, entrepreneur John Wesley Jones hired artist William Quesenbury to join such a venture. Quesenbury and other artists traveled the overland trails through Nebraska Territory to sketch the "scenery, curiosities, and stupendous rocks" they encountered, and Jones used selected material for his "Pantoscope," a gigantic, scrolling panoramic painting. Scenery, Curiosities, and Stupendous...
Long before Hollywood brought the landscapes of the American West to movie screens, clever impresarios invented ways of simulating the experience of w...
Between 1841 and 1866, more than 500,000 people followed trails to Oregon, California, and the Salt Lake Valley in one of the greatest mass migrations in American history. This collection of travelers' accounts of their journeys in the 1840s, the first volume in a new series of trail narratives, comprises excerpts from pioneer and missionary letters, diaries, journals, and memoirs--many previously unpublished--accompanied by biographical information and historical background.
Beginning with Father Pierre-Jean de Smet's letters relating his encounters with Plains Indians, and...
Between 1841 and 1866, more than 500,000 people followed trails to Oregon, California, and the Salt Lake Valley in one of the greatest mass migr...
In the first book to focus on relations between Indians and emigrants on the overland trails, Michael L. Tate shows that such encounters were far more often characterized by cooperation than by conflict. Having combed hundreds of unpublished sources and Indian oral traditions, Tate finds Indians and Anglo-Americans continuously trading goods and news with each other, and Indians providing various forms of assistance to overlanders.
Tate admits that both sides normally followed their own best interests and ethical standards, which sometimes created distrust. But many acts of kindness...
In the first book to focus on relations between Indians and emigrants on the overland trails, Michael L. Tate shows that such encounters were far m...
During the early weeks of 1848, as U.S. congressmen debated the territorial status of California, a Swiss immigrant and an itinerant millwright forever altered the future state's fate. Building a sawmill for Johann August Sutter, James Wilson Marshall struck gold. The rest may be history, but much of the story of what happened in the following year is told not in history books but in the letters, diaries, journals, and other written recollections of those whom the California gold rush drew west. In this second installment in the projected four-part collection The Great Medicine...
During the early weeks of 1848, as U.S. congressmen debated the territorial status of California, a Swiss immigrant and an itinerant millwright...