Book Description
In August 1864, Cheyenne and Sioux warriors launched a series of raids on the "road ranches" along the California-Oregon Trail, in Nebraska Territory, killing, wounding, or capturing dozens of white settlers. Massacre along the Medicine Road details that violent summer, as seen through the eyes of the people who were the targets of the attacks. Ronald Becher spent more than seven years sifting through thousands of pages of documents, diaries and newspaper accounts from the period, to produce a fascinating and detailed snapshot of the people, events and their aftermath.
Customer Reviews:
More information than I expected. WAAAAAY more........2007-09-12
For some reason, the impression this book description gives is that it only covers the Indian raids on the road ranches along the Little Blue River in August 1864. It certainly does that in exhaustive detail. But it covers SO much more. It basically covers ALL the Indian raid activity in Nebraska in the 1860-67 time frame including all along the Platte Valley as far as Julesburg. Biographies of all the major players are here too, no easy task considering most were simple pioneers that left a tough trail to follow.
The comprehensivness of this tome is incredible. The book is richly sourced and the footnotes highly informative. Maps are excellent, although throwing in one additional map showing all the rivers of Nebraska would have been nice.
This is a book so packed full of information that it needs to be read twice, because there's too much to digest the first time around.
Mr. Becher, my sincere congratulations. You've done a marvelous job. This was obviously a labor of love. Hard to believe this is your first book.
No history buff's bookshelf should be without this book........1999-05-29
I have been a "student" of the Indian raids along the Little Blue in Nebraska in 1864 and have written and lectured on the subject for the past 9 years. Even my own publication falls way short of this new book. The history of the raids has needed someone to present it using no frills, no embellishments - just hard, cold facts supported by good documentation. The author has done just that and with the flair of a storyteller, the fascinating account of the events leading to and after the conflict is flawlessly unveiled in the book. The real heart of this book though is in Part II, presented in a nearly blow by blow "you are there" view of each of the attacks on stage stations and road ranches by Cheyenne and Sioux warriors. No other accounts have told this story with the thorough and painstaking examination given it by the writer. Drawing upon a vast body of military records, manuscripts, government publications, newspapers, periodicals, books, and other documentation, he has sifted meticulously through half-truths, outright untruths, shaded truths, and filled in with factual material where none was available or had been omitted in previous accounts. The remarkable research has resulted in a work that sheds a new and delightfully comprehensive light upon this period of American history.
For those who know (or wish to learn about) the whys and wherefores of the white-Indian relations from the time of the colonists and through the final conflict at Wounded Knee in 1890, it is put into perspective with this work. The book is divided into four parts, followed with an epilogue and appendices. Part I gives an overview of the development of white-Indian relations and interactions, presided over by government intervention from the 1600s up to the 1860s and the eve of the raid or massacre along the Little Blue. Unfolded in Part II is an amazingly accurate and detailed description of each day of the raid and immediate aftermath taking place from August 7th through August 19th. Beginning on the 7th, Cheyenne and Sioux warriors attacked numerous road ranches along the Little Blue and vast amounts of property and goods were destroyed. Commerce and travel along the route west from Missouri and Kansas through Nebraska and Colorado came to a halt. Hundreds of people were affected, many lost their lives, several women and children were captured and held hostage - some for as long at nine months.
Part III describes the panic and some levelheaded preparation and fortification of their homes by people living in the outlying areas of the actual raids. Accounting of press coverage given to the events, military campaigns to seek out and punish the Indians is given by the author before chapters on the captives and their unplanned for journey against their will.
For those interested in the ordeal and aftermath of the captivity of those mentioned, the book is a goldmine of information. Of the known captives (Lucinda, Isabelle and Willie Eubank, Ambrose Asher, Laura Roper, Nancy Morton, Daniel Marble) all survived and were released to military authorities. All returned home to relatives except Daniel Marble and Isabelle Eubank, who lived for only a short time after reaching Denver where they were brought by Major Edward W. Wynkoop, the commander at Fort Lyon in Colorado Territory. Nancy Morton was held 6 months and finally reached Fort Laramie in Wyoming, as did Lucinda and Willie Eubank who were brought there by their captors in May of 1865. For those interested in the history of the Sand Creek Massacre and Black Kettle's role in the events of 1864, it may be a surprise to learn that he was one of those greatly responsible for negotiating the release of the captives to Major Wynkoop near Hackberry Creek in western Kansas in September of 1864. Colonel Chivington and the First Colorado Volunteers ultimately attacked him and his fellow tribesmen in late November 1864.
Part IV of the book describes the aftereffects of the raids with concluding stories about many of the individuals who had lived in the valley of the Little Blue as well as others who impacted the story. Summation is given the Lemmon, Roper, Martin, Eubank, Morton, Emery, Mudge, Comstock, Baker, Artist, Gilbert, Hunt, Palmer, Bainter, Uhlig, Metcalf, Morrow, McDonald, Gilman and Marble families. What became of those military and governmental officials like Colonel Summers, Generals Samuel Curtis and Robert Mitchell, John Evans, and John Milton Chivington is discussed. A concluding chapter describes one former captive's return to the site of her capture that had occurred 64 years before.
Appendix A lists the known casualties of the raid, including those killed, mortally wounded, wounded and captured. This list is incredibly valuable for those trying to make sense of all the names and dates. Appendix B is a list of the military troop dispositions of company units and commanding officers. The photographs and illustrations are fine and their clarity is very good. Although a few typos crop up here and there in the text and one map on page 174 erroneously lists Nuckotte County instead of Nuckolls County, there is nothing about the book that needs much improvement. I loved the book and learned a lot from it that even I, after nearly 10 years of studying this topic, did not know.
No bookshelf of individuals interested in American west history should be without this awesome piece of research and easy to read style of writing. I highly recommend the book and give it my highest endorsement.
Book Description
In 1861, Oklahoma (Indian Territory) was the recent home of the transported Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole). When the Civil War broke outboth Union and Confederate state forces moved in and began fighting, both in the Indian Territory and across the borders of neighbouring states (mainly Kansas, but also Texas and Arkansas). Indians were recruited by both sides, and took the opportunity to pursue traditional hostilities which were supported by a variety of regular troops, guerrilla bands and outlaws. this book examines the warring sides in this fascinating and complex conflict.
Book Description
Annie Heloise Abel describes the 1862 Battle of Pea Ridge, a bloody disaster for the Confederates but a glorious moment for Colonel Stand Watie and his Cherokee Mounted Rifles. The Indians were soon enough swept by the war into a vortex of confusion and chaos. Abel makes clear that their participation in the conflict brought only devastation to Indian Territory.
Born in England and educated in Kansas, Annie Heloise Abel (1873–1947) was a historical editor and writer of books dealing mainly with the trans-Mississippi West. They include The American Indian as Slaveholder and Secessionist (1915), also reprinted as a Bison Book. Abel's distinguished career is noted in an introduction by Theda Perdue, the author of Slavery and the Evolution of Cherokee Society (1979), and Michael D. Green, whose Politics of Indian Removal: Creek Government and Society in Crisis (1982) was published by the University of Nebraska Press.
Customer Reviews:
Native Americans at war.......2006-10-10
Great book on the involvment of Native Americans in the Civil War. I especially enjoy the chapters covering the Oklahoma Cherokees.
Review of Reprint of Abel's American Indfian in Civil War.......2006-09-20
The American Indian in the Civil War, 1862-1865 by Annie Heloise Abel; Introduction by Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green
University of Nebraska Press
ISBN:0-8032-5919-0
The University of Nebraska Press publishes here the middle volume of the three volume series "The Slaveholding Indians" by Anne Heloise Abel . These included " The American Indian as Slaveholder and Secessionist" in 1915, " The American Indian as a Participant in the Civil War" in 1919, and "The American Indian under Reconstruction" in 1925. Front papers of the edition lacked this identifying tag, and it would have added a helpful placement. This edition itself, however, although in paper back, represents a complete and faithful rendition of the original text with all notes, references, bibliography , and illustrations included. It is accompanied by a helpful introduction by two University of North Carolina professors , Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green, who together have published several books on North Carolina's original native peoples.
In the time span of 1862 to 1865 the participation of the American Indian, - settled only some 30 odd years in Indian Territory in present day Oklahoma by force - in a war he did not cause or desire , but could not avoid, has its own drama and tragedy. Fact on fact supports the unique solidity of this singular story . No matter what is tried it seems the inevitable will happen; and indeed we are told the American Indian suffered more than any other group from the effects of the civil war .The run of this story, simply in its telling , attests to the chaos of a civil war.
Historiography works by layering, each generation profiting by the work of the last and improving by new discovery of text and records. Thus Green and Perdue are quick to point out that Miss Abel's books is an excellent outline , a base on which to build further work in the area; work that will profit from original sources not available at the time such as the papers of Chief John Ross, pioneer diaries, and so on. Her work is not as complete a picture of the events as might be had now, moreover our attitudes and sensitivities have changed. While this is quite possibly true , it is important to note that Miss Abel's accomplishment has yet to be repeated, and in fact, yet stands quite alone.
Copies of the Abel three volume work on the Slaveholding Indians were once available in university libraries. However, they disappeared from open shelving after the 1960s. They are now most usually available only in closed, special collections and cannot be consulted at one's leisure. This fact means the University of Nebraska publication with the Perdue and Green introduction is specially important and provides an important contribution. Americana buffs, students of the civil war, the American west, or the American Indian ..... all will appreciate the opportunity to own this book.
By Sylvia Starr
Book Description
"[Abel's] story is a tragic one, but leaving it untold would be a greater tragedy. Native American southerners shared the experience of the Civil War with other Americans, and their involvement in that upheaval had as profound an effect on their subsequent history. Abel's was the first serious telling of that story."--Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green.
The secession of southern states in the winter and spring of 1861-62 brought about a crisis for the Five Civilzed Tribes living in present-day Oklahoma, or Indian Territory. Forced out of the South thirty years earlier and relocated there, the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles had maintained a relationship with the United States through treaties and resident agents. Now the civil war that threatened the Union also called into question its relationship with the southern Indians, an influential minority of whom owned black slaves. In this volume, originally published in 1915 as the first of a trilogy on slaveholding Indians, Annie Heloise Abel explores the diplomatic manuevers of the Confederacy to secure alliances with these five Indian nations.
The negotiations were an important chapter in American diplomatic history, as Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green, professors of history at Dartmouth College, point out in their introduction to this Bison Book. They profile the English-born, Kansas-educated Annie Heloise Abel (1873-1947), a distinguished historical editor and writer whose works include The American Indian in the Civil War, 1862-1865, also a Bison Book.
Customer Reviews:
Take with a Grain of Salt and Call.......2000-11-06
Ms Abel's book The American Indian as Slaveholder and Secessionist is a good book for information on this subject. It appears that she did a great deal of research. Ms Abel's book is full of references and footnotes on her research into Indains as slaveholders. In my opinion the book is marred because of the obvious prejudice bent of her conclusions. She so much as said that any accomplishments made by the Indians was solely due to their mixture with white blood. Read this book with a grain of salt. It is beautifully footnoted and referenced. I give it a 3 for research.
Customer Reviews:
And you didn't even know.................2007-06-27
......that the Civil War reached Oklahoma, which was then called Indian Territory. Well, it did, and it's quite a story. A backwater of General Edmund Kirby Smith's Transmississippi Department, Oklahoma was a boarder area where brother really did fight against brother. Real battles were fought, and real soldiers died. But, they didn't die in the massive numbers seen at Chickamauga or Antietam; thus history has forgotten them. This fine little book makes a good start at correcting the oversight.
When the war broke out, both sides wanted the Indians, the Five Civilized Tribes, led by the Cherokees, and each got around half. The Confederacy sent Brigadier General Albert Pike to recruit them, and he did a pretty good job. A strange, brilliant, man, Pike's career as a General is a minor footnote in his long life as an attorney, author, and Masonic scholar. Pike resigned in 1862, and was followed by Douglas Cooper, a more conventional, if less colorful, officer. Here we meet the very first American Indian ever to wear general's stars: Brigadier General Stand Watie, one of the two rival Chiefs of the Cherokee Nation. This was NOT a poor Indian in a wigwam, but a wealthy, slave owning, rancher who lived in a mansion. He was also a very effective leader, and fighting cavalry officer, who conducted multiple successful operations.
For all the Confederacy's problems, this was an arena where the South remained viable. General Watie did not surrender until June 23, 1865, the last Confederate general to strike his colors. This book does not pretend to be a deep, scholarly, tome. It is, however, a very well researched, and well written, overview. This IS a book that I would recommend to the general reader; all too many think the Civil War was just about Lee and Grant, and that's far from the whole story.
Average customer rating:
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Fort Supply, Indian Territory: Frontier Outpost on the Plains
Robert C. Carriker
Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
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ASIN: 0806122439 |
Customer Reviews:
Fort Supply.......2006-01-21
For this book, published in 1970, Robert Carriker began researching in the 1960s a vast number (he was surprised by the amount) of records housed in the National Archives regarding Fort Supply, located just east of the panhandle of Oklahoma on the North Canadian River. The records indicated to Carriker how important a post the old fort was in the history of the West and encouraged him to write this account.
Fort Supply, established in 1868, played basically three essential roles in its 25-year history: during its first ten years (1868-78) its troops helped protect the Cheyennes and Arapahoes from other Indian tribes (mainly the raiding Kiowas) as well as from the exploitations of whites, especially the whiskey traders from Kansas who used the supply roads to ply their illegal trade in the nearby Indian villages; during the next dozen years when its troops helped protect the cattle business along quickly developing cattle trails (the Chisholm Trail to the east and the Dodge City Road to the west, to name just two); and after 1890, by serving as headquarters for the opening of the Cherokee Outlet to homesteaders.
Carriker is an excellent writer (his biography of Father De Smet, pioneer Jesuit missionary to the northwest Indians, is also superb), and he tells the story of Fort Supply with verve and in detail. The fort officially closed in 1895, though 13 years later the Western State Hospital took up residence there, where it remained into the late 1980s. Fortunately, when the hospital closed the state of Oklahoma took over the site and turned it into a park. Old Fort Supply should thus avoid the usual fate of abandoned historical places: deterioration followed by oblivion. Anyone interested in forts of the old West or in the history of the Plains will find this book useful and entertaining.
Average customer rating:
- very good general description
- The Civil War in the Western Territories
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The Civil War in the Western Territories: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah
Ray Charles Colton
Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| United States
| Americas
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| Civil War
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Similar Items:
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The Army of the Pacific: Its Operations in California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Plains Region, Mexico, Etc., 1860-1866 (Frontier Classics)
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Civil War in the American West
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Bloody Valverde: A Civil War Battle on the Rio Grande, February 21, 1862
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The Battle of Glorieta: Union Victory in the West (Texas A&m University Military History Series , No 61)
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Blood & Treasure: Confederate Empire in the Southwest (Texas a & M University Military History Series)
ASIN: 0806119020 |
Customer Reviews:
very good general description.......2000-07-15
Colton gives a good account over the Far West, but fails to add proper maps for the better understanding of the single engagements. I'm still searching for the ultimate book 'bout the Transmississippi theatre.
The Civil War in the Western Territories.......2000-04-26
This book was a very interesting one. I liked the fact that Colton covered several different conflict that happened during the Civil War. In the first chapter he gives some background on eac of the territories. In chapet two he talkes about the Confederat action in each of these states. Chapter three gives some background on the troops fron Colorado. The chapter that really impressed me was chapter seven, this chapter was about the effect the indians had on the War.In the last chapter he puts some closure to what the states did after the War. There was one thing that I did not like about the book and that was the way he used names in this book. Everytime he used a name he would use the full name for example Lieutnant colonel Edward R. Eyrethe first time and after that he could have said Lieutenant Colonel Eyre. This made me very frustrated having to read the long name every time. Overall this book worked for me. I liked the structure of this book. He used some good maps and photos of some of the individuals that were talked about in the book. I would reccommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about the Civil War in the West.
Book Description
Late in April 1861, President Lincoln ordered Federal troops to evacuate forts in Indian Territory. That left the Five Civilized Tribes—Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles—essentially under Confederate jurisdiction and control. The American Indian and the End of the Confederacy, 1863–1866, spans the closing years of the Civil War, when Southern fortunes were waning, and the immediate postwar period.
Annie Heloise Abel shows the extreme vulnerability of the Indians caught between two warring sides. "The failure of the United States government to afford to the southern Indians the protection solemnly guaranteed by treaty stipulations had been the great cause of their entering into an alliance with The Confederacy, "she writes. Her classic book, originally published in 1925 as the third volume of The Slaveholding Indians, makes clear how the Indians became the victims of uprootedness and privation, pillaging, government mismanagement, and, finally, a deceptive treaty for reconstruction.
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