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Post by clw on Sept 12, 2009 18:48:04 GMT -6
Maybe it would be useful and interesting to learn who's reading what. Hokey, I know, but since I no longer have anyone with whom to discuss whatever history book I'm currently reading, I thought I'd start a thread asking the question so I could answer it. I have 3 going at the moment. I don't usually do this, but I've been feeling a bit scattered lately... 1. Custer and Company - ploughing my way through. Camp isn't exactly mesmerizing. But it's Camp. You have to read it. It's source material. 2. Crimson Prairie -- Excellent ( of course it is, Billy recommended it) A must for the history of the Indian Wars. But I got to the part where Bradley dies and got depressed. So I picked up.... 3. Soldiers West -- just the ticket. Fresh, new stuff to me as I've gotton to know Harney and Carlton and King and such. Even changed my opinion of Harney. And there's an excellent Introduction: The Frontier and the American Military Tradition by Utley. Going to finish this one first. I think. Just jump right in.....
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Post by cefil on Sept 12, 2009 21:06:47 GMT -6
Great topic, clw... I just finished three from Arthur H. Clark Company's Frontier Military Series: - Powder River Odyssey: Nelson Cole's Western Campaign of 1865, by David E. Wagner
- Fort Laramie: Military bastion of the High Plains, by Douglas C. McChristian
- Guarding the Overland Trails: The Eleventh Ohio Cavalry in the Civil War, by Robert Huhn Jones
All three were very good, and provided great background for the trek that Mrs. cefil and I just took: Fort Pierre to LBH (via Hwy 212), to the Fetterman battlefield, Fort Phil Kearny, Fort Caspar, Fort Fetterman, Fort Laramie, Fort Robinson, and Wounded Knee. Currently I'm finishing up Sickles at Gettysburg, by James A. Hessler, a fascinating portrait of another flamboyant Civil War figure. I'm also working my way through some old issues of Journal of the West, including a great series of articles on Warpaths of the Southern Plains by Lonnie J. White. He covers, among others, The Hancock and Custer Expeditions of 1867, The Battle of Beecher Island, and The Battles of Saline River and Prairie Dog Creek. Other selections from JOTW include: Plains Indian War Medicine by Richard Aquila; Custer Made a Good Decision: A Leavenworth Appreciation by Major Robert E. Morris; and What Kind of Man Was He?: A Look at George Armstrong Custer Through the Science of Graphoanalysis by James M. McGlennon. Great stuff...especially the issues from the 60s and 70s. Our current family read-aloud book is A Dawn Like Thunder by Robert J. Mrazek. It's the story of Torpedo Squadron 8 at Midway & Guadalcanal, and features local hero Lt. Cdr. John C. Waldron, the leader of Torpedo Squadron 8 at Midway, where he was killed in action. (The bridge we use several times each day to cross the Missouri is named in his honor.) For a change of pace, I'm also dipping into Lost in My Own Backyard: A Walk in Yellowstone National Park by Tim Cahill. On the audio book front, I just finished Terminal Freeze by Lincoln Child; and we listened to all of A Terrible Glory during our recent Forts & Battles* trek. My daily commute is currently accompanied by Undaunted Courage, by Ambrose. cefil *Not to be confused with the Farts & Bottles tour favored by other denizens of this board.
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Post by sherppa on Sept 12, 2009 21:12:57 GMT -6
Finished "Where Custer Fell" yesterday. Should get "It Is A Good Day To Die" done yet tonight. From there "Firearms in the Custer Battle" and on to "Warriors at the Little Bighorn 1876". And then it gets real interesting again.
Thanks to the recomendations of many here I purchased 10 more books on the LBH in the last two weeks. So hopefully it will be a cold snowy winter.
sherppa
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Post by Dark Cloud on Sept 14, 2009 7:48:56 GMT -6
Just bumping this above mine, where it should be.
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Post by Melani on Sept 14, 2009 14:35:11 GMT -6
The Lance and the Shield, by Robert Utley. Previously I had only read Vetsal, and thought it was time to find out about the Indian side of things in more depth. So far, very interesting.
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Post by Treasuredude on Sept 14, 2009 16:55:37 GMT -6
My daily commute is currently accompanied by Undaunted Courage, by Ambrose. cefil Daily commute? 5 minutes at a time, eh? ;D I have the same long commute but don't cross the river. I don't know if you are aware of this but James Donovan of A TERRIBLE GLORY fame is giving a presentation in Deadwood at the Festival of Books on October 3rd. There are also talks by Ernie LaPointe and the author of the latest Gall book. Can't remember his name. As far as the topic is concerned, I am in the middle of CUSTER AND HIS TIMES BOOK 5. I plan on starting WHERE A HUNDRED SOLDIERS WERE KILLED soon.
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Post by cefil on Sept 14, 2009 20:20:43 GMT -6
Daily commute? 5 minutes at a time, eh? ;D I have the same long commute but don't cross the river. I don't know if you are aware of this but James Donovan of A TERRIBLE GLORY fame is giving a presentation in Deadwood at the Festival of Books on October 3rd. There are also talks by Ernie LaPointe and the author of the latest Gall book. Can't remember his name. Hey...Mine takes every bit of 7 minutes, unless I hit rush-minute traffic, in which case it balloons to 10. (But I do it 4 times a day, so that gives me about half an hour of listening time every day.) Thanks for the reminder about the Festival of Books...South Dakota will definitely be the place to be on October 3. (But then, isn't it always?) Here's the line-up for the "History/Tribal Writers" category: - Robert W. Larson (the "Gall" author you mentioned), speaking about "Gall and the Yellowstone Campaigns"
- Kevin Adams, author of Class and Race in the Frontier Army. (Has anyone read this book? It has been described by one reviewer as "the best treatment of the Frontier army since that great tome, Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay.")
- A panel of authors discussing "Law and Order: Seth Bullock, Wild Bill Hickock, and the Outlaws of Deadwood"
- Another panel of authors discussing "The Enduring Significance of the Wounded Knee Creek Massacre"
- Jim Donovan, A Terrible Glory
And that's just one category...There will also be presentations in several other categories, and a chance to meet authors like Craig Johnson (who writes the terrific Walt Longmire mysteries), Pete Dexter, Linda Hasselstrom, Dan O'Brien, and many more. Any takers for a great weekend in South Dakota? cefil
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Post by dennisarnold on Oct 7, 2009 15:22:22 GMT -6
Hi. I'm new here and this is my first post; I figured this was as good a place as any to get started and introduce myself.
I'm currently reading 2 books;
"Custer Fell First; The Adventures of John C. Lockwood", compiled and edited by J. Clyde Ryan, The Naylor Company, 1966. This is my research guide.
"Prelude to Glory; A newspaper accounting of Custer's 1874 Expedition to The Black Hills", Herbert Krause and Gary D. Olson, Brevet Press, 1974.
In "Custer Fell First. . ." Lockwood claims that his favorite uncle, John Raymond, was killed by Indians during the 1874 Expedition. "Prelude to Glory" offers great detail about the expedition and clearly names only 3 men killed/died during that expedition: M. Cunningham of H. Troop, taken by dysentery; James Turner, shot down by William Rollins in a dispute; Sgt. Stempker of L. Troop, taken also by dysentery. No mention is made of Lockwood or Raymond. The book also states there were no hostile contacts with any Indians in the area.
Thanks,
Dennis
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Post by clw on Oct 7, 2009 16:03:42 GMT -6
Nice to meet you, Dennis!
Obviously I've finished the first three and since then......
The View From Officers's Row by Sheri Smith -- interesting in that it looks at the Indian Wars perpective from the civilian, military and NDN view.
Sagebrush Soldier by Sheri Smith -- the diary of Private William Earl Smith who was with Crook and served as orderly for Mackenzie. There are additions from Bourke's diary on concurrent dates.
Memoirs of a White Crow Indian by Tom La Forge as told by Thomas Marquis -- An unexpected wow. Couldn't put it down.
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Post by bc on Oct 7, 2009 16:53:35 GMT -6
Welcome Dennis.
Lockwood eh? Well that was my first book as a kid. I rate it Double F for fascinating fiction. Except for the possibility of Custer falling first, Lockwood has pretty much been debunked. There is a thread or two where I and others have discussed his stories at length. Maybe you can do a search on him to find the discussion. I still hold some glimmer of hope that his name will show up on a government payroll somewhere in the Dakotas during the 70's. Or possibly as an employee for a government contractor or even something with Crook at Jellystone but so far no luck for the alleged great friend of Charley Reynolds and that horse of his (Wonder, Thunder, Silver, Lightning or whatever the great horse's name was).
He doesn't show up on any lists during the 76 expedition as a scout, packer, teamster, or anything or any other expedition. Reynolds was with Reno during the valley attack according to most officer's who testified with the RCOI. None of his stories add up. Not even the one with Comanche whose handlers with KU ignored. Lockwood did enlist with Co. M in August of 76 so that is probably where he got all of his information and stories. And he was the secretary of the Indian War veterans association.
Ryan's map tends to follow the ford B theory and ignores others. Lockwood never did make it clear where he last saw Custer. At this point, I'd be happy to find some confirmation that he was at the Yangton mining camps in the early 70's. Or even the name of his uncle for that matter.
Anyway, my goal in life is to find something to support any of Lockwood's stories. So far I'm a failure.
bc
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Post by zekesgirl on Oct 7, 2009 17:54:02 GMT -6
<<<<Memoirs of a White Crow Indian by Tom La Forge as told by Thomas Marquis -->>>>> I finally got a copy of it and you are right. You do not want to put it down. I just finished "Cavalier in Buckskin" (again) by Utley and I'm thinking I'll pull Mincho's "Mystery of E Troop" down and reread it.
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Post by cefil on Oct 8, 2009 11:40:54 GMT -6
Sagebrush Soldier by Sheri Smith -- the diary of Private William Earl Smith who was with Crook and served as orderly for Mackenzie. There are additions from Bourke's diary on concurrent dates. Back in 1989, after 10 wonderful years in Wyoming, I relocated to a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. I very quickly developed a case of severe homesickness (and heartsickness), pining for the wide-open spaces of Wyoming. Sagebrush Soldier had just come out, and I devoured it with the desperation of a drowning man clutching at straws. When I got to the place where they were passing by Pumpkin Buttes, I almost couldn’t bear to read any further. (My best friend ranched at the foot of Pumpkin Buttes, and I had spent many wonderful hours in their shadows.) Just when I was feeling the lowest, I was called upon to do a presentation for the local ministerial association. During lunch, I was seated next to Rev. Linda Silversmith, and the conversation quickly turned to the books we were currently reading. I started telling her all about Sagebrush Soldier, and how much it was affecting me. “Oh,” she said, “My sister wrote that about our great-grandfather!” You see, her name wasn’t Silversmith; it was Silver-Smith…and she was the sister of Sherry Smith, the author of Sagebrush Soldier…a book based upon their great-grandfather’s journal. We had a wonderful conversation, and I was left with a terrific story about what an incredibly small world it can be. Here I was…in Cleveland Ohio, for heaven’s sake…pining over memories of Wyoming…and happenstance puts me in a chair next to the great-granddaughter of the man who’s journal of his trip through Wyoming I am, at that very time, reading. It still gives me goosebumps today… cefil
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Post by sherppa on Oct 8, 2009 20:27:35 GMT -6
Working on Camp, "Custer in 76". Newbie question, why does Camp's work get accolades by many for being well researched and slammed by others for being leading?
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Post by sherppa on Oct 8, 2009 20:28:06 GMT -6
Working on Camp, "Custer in 76". Newbie question, why does Camp's work get accolades by many for being well researched and slammed by others for being leading?
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Post by ignimbrite on Oct 8, 2009 22:52:52 GMT -6
I'm reading a couple of things. I just finished Gold in the Black Hills by Watson Parker which led to Exploring with Custer by Grafe and Horsted. At lunch I'm dipping into Vern Smalley's Little Bighorn Mysteries for something to mull over in the afternoons and am halfway through Bernard Devoto's Course of Empire as a planned winter reading of his western trilogy. At some point my dad will finish his copy of Fort Laramie by Doug McChristian and I'll get a chance at that.
Of course, reading this thread has added another dozen books to my "must read" list.
Cefil, what a great story. It's funny how things like that happen. I can appreciate your fondness for Pumpkin Buttes. The desire to see them closer added many extra miles to my spring trip to Fort Robinson. On family trips I'd seen the buttes off in the distance as we zoomed down I-25, but never gotten nearer. As a solo traveler I was able to indulge myself and frustrated several Wyoming drivers with my slow speed on the highway that runs south of them.
Ruth
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