A lady, the desert, the army and the Apaches
This is the account of the life of a young army wife who followed her husband-a second lieutenant of infantry-after the turbulent years of the American Civil War, in which he had served, to what was considered the wildest and most remote of frontier outposts in the American south west. Life within the Army in Arizona came as something of a cultural shock to this gentle lady of New England who knew nothing of housekeeping-indeed she did not even know how to pack. This absorbing book takes us together with its author on a rights of passage...

A lady, the desert, the army and the Apaches
This is the account of the life of a young army wife who followed her husband-a second lieutenant of infantry-after the turbulent years of the American Civil War, in which he had served, to what was considered the wildest and most remote of frontier outposts in the American south west. Life within the Army in Arizona came as something of a cultural shock to this gentle lady of New England who knew nothing of housekeeping-indeed she did not even know how to pack. This absorbing book takes us together with its author on a rights of passage...

When Martha Summerhayes (1844 1926) came as a bride to Fort Russell in Wyoming Territory in 1874, she saw not much in those first few days besides bright buttons, blue uniforms, and shining swords, but soon enough the hard facts of army life began to intrude. Remonstrating with her husband, Jack Wyder Summerhayes, that she had only three rooms and a kitchen instead of a whole house, she was informed that women are not reckoned in at all in the War Department.
Although Martha Summerhayes s recollections span a quarter of a century and recount life at a dozen army posts, the heart of this...