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Post by elisabeth on Nov 2, 2006 2:49:20 GMT -6
This is by Alson B. Ostrander -- the "dear Brother Ostrander" who Goldin and Dustin constantly talk about in The Benteen-Goldin Letters. Has anybody read it?
I've just discovered there are any number of cheap copies available from Alibris, so couldn't resist ordering it. It just might have some Custer/LBH/7th Cavalry gossip in it; but even if it doesn't, it should give an interesting picture of the enlisted man's life in the frontier army ...
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Post by buffaloman on Nov 2, 2006 6:59:06 GMT -6
Thanks Elisabeth, I just ordered a copy from Alibris. I got the book through interlibrary loan once about twenty years ago and haven't seen it since. A collector in Montana had a Crow floral beaded pouch that was illustrated in the book and I wanted to compare the artifact to the photo in the book. As I recall the pouch was collected at Fort C.F. Smith at the time of the Red Cloud War. I look forward to having the book.
-Bob
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Post by elisabeth on Nov 2, 2006 8:05:21 GMT -6
Glad to hear it!
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Post by elisabeth on Dec 5, 2006 10:02:37 GMT -6
Well, the book's arrived ... and a very odd thing it is. Ostrander appears to have had about as atypical an experience of army life as it's possible to have. At every turn, officers from Grant on down are smoothing his path and doing him favours; his father is forever using influence in Washington on his behalf; he seems to be treated as a favoured pet throughout his enlistment, coming and going as he pleases, and doesn't do a day's proper soldiering in the whole two years. At the end of which, he's given a lieutenancy as a going-away present!!! Not the life of your average private, by any means! Quite, quite bizarre.
No 7th Cavalry stuff, by the way. A tiny bit about the Fetterman affair; a few big "characters", such as Jim Bridger; and loads about bits of army life we seldom hear anything of, such as how clerks were paid, clothed and fed, and the sorts of scams that an evil sergeant could pull if he wished ... so it's interesting enough. But it certainly doesn't throw much light on everyday life in the ranks!
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