| Regular Army O!: Soldiering on the Western Frontier, 1865-1891 Contributor(s): McChristian, Douglas C. (Author), Utley, Robert M. (Foreword by) |
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ISBN: 0806164557 ISBN-13: 9780806164557 Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press OUR PRICE: $32.62 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: July 2019 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Military - United States - History | United States - 19th Century - History | United States - State & Local - West (ak, Ca, Co, Hi, Id, Mt, Nv, Ut, Wy) |
| Dewey: 355.109 |
| Physical Information: 1.73" H x 6.14" W x 9.21" (2.61 lbs) 784 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 19th Century - Cultural Region - Western U.S. - Cultural Region - Southwest U.S. - Chronological Period - 1851-1899 |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher 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 After the volunteer troops that had garrisoned western forts and camps during the Civil War were withdrawn in 1865, the regular army replaced them.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. |
Contributor Bio(s): McChristian, Douglas C.: - Douglas C. McChristian (1947-2018) was a research historian for the National Park Service and a former National Park Service field historian at Fort Davis and Fort Laramie National Historic Sites and at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. He is the author of numerous books, including Fort Bowie, Arizona: Combat Post of the Southwest, 1858-1894 and Fort Laramie: Military Bastion of the High Plains.Utley, Robert M.: - Robert M. Utley served in the National Park Service for 25 years in various capacities, including Chief Historian from 1964 to 1972. Since his retirement from the federal government in 1980, he has devoted himself full-time to historical research and writing with a specialty in the American West. He is author, among many articles and books he has published, of Cavalier in Buckskin: George Armstrong Custer and the Western Military Frontier, Revised Edition; Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life; Lone Star Lawmen: The Second Century of the Texas Rangers; and The Commanders: Civil War Generals Who Shaped the American West. A founder of the Western History Association, Utley has served on its governing council and as its president. |