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Post by Tricia on May 1, 2006 16:35:37 GMT -6
Dear Yellow rose, thanks for you gentle words and thanks for your contribution. You're right: in 1876, the army could not (would not) provide for widows and this is a destiny Libbie had to come through too. They had a slim pension, that were later a bit increased but, however, not enough. Your last question is just what this thread was about. When I have time, I will post here stories about the LBH widows. I hate to talk about my works, but I am collecting just such stories to make a book I hope I could publish in the States too. "Widows at the little big horn". Let's see. Michigander-- A remarkable idea! Go for it ... and I think Scout has hit the mark with his comments about the Newsletter. I'm sure Diane would love to see an article derived from your work; I certainly would enjoy reading it. Not enough time is ever really spent on what I'd call the "backbone" of the regiment, with perhaps the exception of Libbie. Whilst the men were out on the Plains, fighting and dying, the women did the quieter, but no less noble work ... and that was eeking out--in some cases, mere--survival. Look forward to reading more. Regards, Leyton McLean
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Post by Tricia on May 1, 2006 16:38:05 GMT -6
Scout--
A bully idea. I sent ya an email ... come on this way. We got some great neighborhood hangouts to pick brains and toss back some peel 'em and eat 'em!
Regards, La famille McLean
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Post by Scout on May 5, 2006 20:56:00 GMT -6
Yellowrose...the actual name of the book is WOMEN'S DIARIES OF THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT by Lillian Schlissel. It should be a must read for all school students...talk about hardships and heartbreak. Can you imagine traveling by covered wagon fron St. Louis to California? Many accounts of children dying or getting run over by the wagons. Parents buried them in the middle of nowhere and continued the journey. Our lives are a cake walk compared to what these people went through.
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Post by Melani on May 6, 2006 17:30:40 GMT -6
What a great thread! I would like to recommend A Summer on the Plains with Custer's Seventh Cavalry, the diary of Annie Roberts Yates, covering the visit to her aunt and uncle during which she met George Yates. It is the actual diary entries, with explanatory and biographical notes, and gives a pretty interesting picture of garrison life.
I was rather disappointed with Kathryn Fougera when I realized that it was not an edited diary like the one mentioned above. I actually think it's just one step away from fiction. Some of the anecdotes ring true and others just don't, and I get the feeling that Fougera sort of embellished some of her mother's stories--or even just made stuff up. Her description of the Christmas party seems realistic, but some of the other events, like the buffalo hunt, just didn't seem right--I can't explain it any better than that, just a feeling. When I realized that the book hadn't even been partially written by Katy Gibson, I began to wonder. And there is at least one factual error that I spotted--she places Keogh at the Gibson wedding when in fact he was in Ireland on that date.
I assume some of you must have seen the PBS series, "The Texas Ranch House" that just ran earlier this week. One of the things they commented on was the way the cowboys in the show behaved toward the girls--not trying to help them in any way when they had trouble with their chores, but instead laughing at them, and then becoming hostile to the one who gave up housekeeping to become a cowboy when they were short-handed. The comment was that that was not how the guys would have behaved in 1867. I am very interested in women who dressed in pants and took on men's work, and there seems to be plenty of evidence that they did that when it was necessary. Comments, recommended reading?
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