THE MILITARY LEGACY of the West, as represented in its literature, is rich in both scope and detail. As C. L. Sonnichsen wrote in From Hopalong to Hud: "All our wars and feuds from Canada to Mexico have been fictionalized, exposing our secret thoughts about ourselves and our friends and enemies" (p. 177). Since nearly every major officer in the Indian Wars left at least one memoir, since enlisted men wrote a number of outstanding narratives, and since quite a few officers' wives left remarkably readable accounts of life on the army frontier, western American novelists and dramatists have long been able to turn to that rich donnée when portraying the military. One battle alone, "Custer's Last Stand," has generated over 2,500 books and pamphlets, a record unequalled by any other American battle.

So important and pervasive was the presence of the Army in the nineteenth-century West and so massive and influential has been the outpouring of books about the frontiersmen in blue that the mind and literature of the West cannot be fully understood without some knowledge of that military legacy. The many excellent histories of the Indian wars give the background necessary for understanding what led to frontier conflicts and what happened when the troops saw action. Records left by officers and enlisted men tell the reader what that military experience was like for those who lived it, while reports by scouts and war correspondents add detail and variety to those accounts. By virtue of fine writing, some primary accounts have risen above the level of mere factual reporting and have become important works of western American literature in their own right. Other primary accounts have formed the basis of novels and dramas about the military in the West.

Warfare with Indians began during the years of Puritan settlement and was almost continuous in the West during the nineteenth century. So many scholars have turned their attention to those dramatic conflicts that a list of the military histories of the American West would constitute an entire book, though no such bibliography has yet been published. Such a mass of historical material could provide a lifetime of reading, and it has already proven to be a rich resource for authors who have wanted their fictional portraits of the West to be historically accurate.

Of the hundreds of historians of the western military, Robert M. Utley has written the best compilation of the experiences of the frontier army. Utley's Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 1848— 1865 (1967) and Frontier Regulars: The United States Army and the Indian, 1866—1890 (1973) also offer the best assessment of the Army's value, for Utley has the knack of seeing beyond detail to understand and relate important general historical patterns. In The Last Days of the Sioux Nation (1961), for example, he explains the inevitability of that final conflict at Wounded Knee, showing that it was not only a massacre, but also a tragedy which initiated the death throes of an entire nation.

In addition to Utley's studies, there are military histories of the American West that (1) study a single encounter (J. W. Vaughn's With Crook on the Rosebud and The Reynolds Campaign on Powder River); (2) cover an entire campaign such as that on the Little Bighorn (Edgar I. Stewart's Custer's Luck and John S. Gray's Centennial Campaign: The Sioux War of 1876); (3) provide a synthesis of previous works, drawing reliable conclusions from them (Dan L. Thrapp's The Conquest of Apacheria and General Crook and the Sierra Madre Adventure and Odie B. Faulks's The Geronimo Campaign) and (4) popularize the subject, making it come to life by using a novelist's techniques (Fairfax Downey's Indian Fighting Army and Paul I. Wellman's Death on Horseback).

Many other histories of the frontier army are difficult to categorize. One good example is William H. Leckie's The Buffalo Soldiers (1967), a readable and concise account of the part played by the black cavalry in the Indian Wars. Leckie builds a strong case for the black cavalry, which could point to fewer desertions, an outstanding combat record, and better discipline than that of any white regiment, yet which suffered the indignities of the worst post, the worst food, the poorest weapons, and the bitterest duty.

Histories such as Leckie's give the reader valuable background information, but any author who desires first-hand material for his work of fiction can turn to a multitude of sources written by actual participants. The most famous of the western officers is George Armstrong Custer, whose many talents also included writing. My Life on the Plains (1874) has been regarded since its publication as one of the most graphic accounts of nineteenth century military life. Custer also wrote for the leading magazines of the day, beginning with his contribution of fifteen articles to a sportsman's periodical called Turf, Field and Farm. Seldom one to shy from any form of publicity, in this case Custer may have chosen to write under the pen name "Nomad" because he criticized superior officers. The Nomad letters were edited by John M. Carroll and republished in a privately printed edition of fifty copies in 1978, and two years later the University of Texas brought out another edition with a commentary by Brian Dippie. Although My Life on the Plains has remained in print almost continuously since its original publication, Custer's Nomad is his unique contribution to written accounts of the military in the West.

Although their names never became household words, three other generals–Nelson A. Miles, O. O. Howard, and George Crook–also took part in major campaigns against western Indians, and wrote down their experiences.

Unfortunately, neither of the two autobiographies by Miles carries any hint of the numerous controversies his naked ambition provoked. Although a real account of his battles would have been more entertaining as well as illuminating, Miles wrote idealized versions with a view toward furthering his political aspirations, which included the White House. Serving the Republic (1911) is merely an abridgement, with a bit of updating, of his previous volume, Personal Recollections and Observations (1896), which is the better of the two. In spite of their weaknesses, both of Miles's autobiographies are invaluable contributions to western military history and lore, for no other officer could match his list of successes, which included the Red River Campaign in Texas, the conquest of the Sioux and Cheyenne in the aftermath of Little Bighorn, the surrender of Geronimo in Arizona, and the surrender of Chief Joseph and his Nez Perce.

In contrast to Miles's political ambitions, General O.O. Howard's major concerns were spiritual. Called "the praying general," Howard had lost an arm at the Civil War battle of Fair Oaks. His Indian experiences took him from the Seminole War in the steaming Florida Everglades to the frigid expanses of Alaska, and he numbered among his adversaries Cheyenne, Sioux, Nez Perce, Apache, Piute, and Bannock. Yet, in keeping with his nickname, Howard wrote with compassion about the Indians and also served as a peace commissioner, learning the frustrations of such a position. That he was more a student of Indian life and custom than most of his fellow officers is reflected in the complete title of his major book: My Life and Experiences Among Our Hostile Indians: A Record of Personal Observations, Adventures, and Campaigns Among the Indians of the Great West with Some Account of Their Life, Habits, Traits, Religion, Ceremonies, Dress, Savage Instincts, and Customs in Peace and War (1907).

Unlike those of Howard and Miles, the military experiences of General George Crook are not remembered because of his own record of them. Instead, the essence of Crook's campaign against the Apache was captured in the writing of John Gregory Bourke, Crook's aide-de-camp from 1872 to 1893. President of the American Folklore Society and an amateur anthropologist, Bourke wrote two books which alone would attest to his skill as a writer: In the Sierra Madre (1883) and MacKenzie's Last Fight with the Cheyennes (1890). But the crown jewel of his work is On the Border with Crook (1891).

Reading works by and about leaders such as Crook, Howard, and Miles gives one the commanding generals' views of the Indian campaigns. To gain a sense of the more mundane details of being an officer in the western army, a reader must turn to other, though equally deserving, memoirs of officers from lieutenants to major generals. In fact, so rich is the field with first-hand views of command during the Indian Wars that probably no other war in United States history is so thoroughly represented by accounts of participants.

For an account of the monotony, boredom, and tedium of the real Indian wars, few books can stand beside Captain Eugene F. Ware's The Indian War of 1864 (1911). Although it is easy to dismiss Ware's experiences simply because he participated in no great events, saw no action, and performed no great deeds of valor, such a dismissal is short-sighted because it is his detailed account of frustration and fear which marks The Indian War of 1864 as an outstanding source. In truth, Ware's experiences lie much closer to the norm than do those depicted in most other books written about this period of western history. In his account, too, one can read the prejudices that were so prevalent in our frontier army. It is often said that love for the Indian in the frontier years was in inverse proportion to distance from him. Ware saw no "noble Red man," no "sadly vanishing heritage," but he recorded in his memoir the attitude of many line officers.

Like Ware's account, the most striking impressions of Lieutenant John Bigelow, Jr.`s On the Bloody Trail of Geronimo are those of the frustration and boredom that an Indian campaigner had to endure. Although the Apache Wars of Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico had many chroniclers, Bigelow's book is not only an invaluable account of this type of warfare, but it also provided the artist Frederic Remington with his first major assignment as an illustrator. Originally published in Outing Magazine (a popular periodical of the day), Bigelow's On the Bloody Trail of Geronimo was rescued from obscurity by Arthur Woodward and Westernlore Press in 1958. It is a story worth reprinting again.

With the exception of Custer's Last Stand, no incident in the Indian Wars became more clouded in controversy than did the surrender of Geronimo, for both Crook and Miles fostered champions espousing their rights to the honor of vanquishing the Apache leader, and many a good case was presented for both generals. None of those writers, however, had credentials superior to those of Britton Davis, one of the promising junior officers selected to serve with the Apache scouts. When Davis wrote The Truth About Geronimo (1929), his characterization of Geronimo as "a thoroughly vicious, intractible [sic] and treacherous man" was supported by firsthand knowledge; and his contention that it was Crook who really defeated Geronimo will probably stand muster also. A key participant in many of the important events of the last Apache campaigns, Davis writes of them with surprising skill.

Honors for the most unusual memoir must certainly go to George A. Armes, an officer who was court-martialed seven times. Although few with a record such as that amassed by Armes would want to see their story in print, he details his own Army career with incredible candor in the aptly titled Ups and Downs of an Army Officer (1900). Courts-martial were not uncommon in the Army of the West, but Armes's seven must be near the record. He provides the reader with an accurate picture of the tendency to indulge in courts-martial almost as a diversion–a tendency which was one of the effects of distance, boredom, and danger on the frontier army. Many of the charges were petty and tied up numerous senior officers for months on end. Ups and Downs gives the researcher an insight into a side of the army that is not usually exhibited.

Officers such as Armes, Davis, Bigelow, and Ware had first-hand knowledge of western campaigns, but even more striking was the experience of the army's scouts. One of these, Luther S. "Yellowstone" Kelly, revealed his education and modesty in his memoirs, Yellowstone Kelly (1926), edited by Milo M. Quaife. In his foreword to Kelly's book, Nelson Miles described his first meeting with the scout whose military career spanned the period from the Civil War through the Spanish-American War: "He had recently killed a large bear and cut off one of its huge paws, and upon this he inscribed his name and sent it to my tent, as he had no cards at the time!" Miles's comparison of Kelly to Daniel Boone, David Crockett, Kit Carson, and William F. Cody may be dramatic, but it is hardly exaggerated. Kelly remembered most fondly the time he spent on the frontier, and it is that period which is covered in his memoirs.

Enlisted men, as well as officers and scouts, gained their share of immortality by leaving written accounts, though fewer of their records exist. Any study of the enlisted man's part in this drama must begin with Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay (1963). By any standard, Don Rickey has provided a basic book for students of the Indian Wars. By interviewing over three hundred living veterans, Rickey produced Forty Miles, which provides a look at the life of the frontier soldiers that could not be experienced by just one person. Rickey examines every detail–from campaigns, clothing, and food, to education and morals–and establishes a landmark contribution.

When Rickey wrote Forty Miles, he said of a slim and very rare volume called Fighting Indians in the 7th United States Cavalry: "The book contains more material on rank and file than does any other. . . ." First published in 1879, the book was reprinted sometime in the late 1920s. There can be little doubt that the author, Ami Frank Mulford, has illuminated the enlisted man's daily life. Mulford was one of the "Custer avengers," those men who enlisted in the wave of patriotism following the 7th Cavalry's near destruction at Little Bighorn. The army was not, as many others have discovered before and after him, all he expected. But, because he faithfully recorded all that he saw, Fighting Indians in the 7th United States Cavalry is indispensable to a study of the enlisted man and the Indian Wars.

In Rekindling Camp Fires (1926), Lewis Crawford tells the story of Ben Arnold (Connor). Arnold was an enlisted man in the 11th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, and much of his duty saw him in the small posts and stage stations of Wyoming during the Civil War. His experiences there compare to those recorded by Eugene Ware. In Rekindling Camp Fires there are few spectacular Indian fights–even few skirmishes. Mostly what comes through is the boredom, the loneliness, and the tedium of frontier duty. Of course, the enlisted man had less time than the officer to be bored. It fell to his lot to build the forts or outposts, often grow his own food, clean the stables, man the guard posts, and do all other necessary tasks that ensured simple survival in the often hostile environment.

Old Neutriment (1934) also details the day-to-day life of the enlisted man. In addition, it provides what is unquestionably the most personal account of the Custers that exists. As history, Old Neutriment is often uNreliable, because it is colored by the unshaken devotion that its author, John Burkman, gave to the Custers. By that same token, this book explains how Custer led men, how he came to be loved by some, hated by others. Though not intentionally, the book even details Custer's faults.

Of John Burkman, Elizabeth Custer wrote, "His horizon was encompassed by two horses, some dogs and one yellow-haired officer." Perhaps modesty would not permit Mrs. Custer to admit herself to John Burkman's horizon, yet she was certainly a part of it. Second only to Elizabeth Custer in his admiration of her husband, Burkman, who could neither read nor write, devoted his life to the Custers. In his later years he had but one friend, D. D. O'Donnell, who wrote Burkman's reminiscences in note form and turned to Glendolin Damon Wagner, a novelist living in Billings, Montana, to write the book. Fortunately, Mrs. Wagner remained true to the spirit and letter of old John Burkman.

"The honor of himself and his country weighed lightly in the scale against the `glorious?'name of Geo(rge) A. Custer, the hardship and danger to his men, as well as probable loss of life were worthy but little consideration when dim visions of an `eagle' or even a `star' floated before the excited mind of our Lieut. Colonel." Thus does Private Theodore Ewert, in the first paragraph of his diary, clearly show that all enlisted men did not share John Burkman's high regard for George A. Custer. Ewert's diary is a bitter invective against officers in general and the Custers in particular. Private Theodore Ewert's Diary of the Black Hills Expedition of 1874 (1976) gives an insight into the feelings of the enlisted man and paints a picture of his existence that is starkly real.

Ewert's own character was complex, and his education far exceeded that of the average enlisted man in the frontier army. He had managed to attain the rank of Captain in the Civil War, but drunkenness brought him a dishonorable discharge. His affinity for the military apparently undiminished, Ewert enlisted several more times. He gained the rank of sergeant on two different occasions. During his enlistment in the 7th Cavalry, he kept this remarkable diary, which accurately reflects the attitude of numbers of enlisted men toward their officers, civilians, and the "system" that kept them in such lowly status. Ewert's diary cannot be overlooked by serious researchers.

Something about George A. Custer drove or inspired men to write about him. David L. Spotts, in Campaigning with Custer and the Nineteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry (1928), gives his impressions of Custer, which coincide with those of Theodore Ewert. Spotts does give a good first-hand narrative of the exasperation and difficult conditions faced by the soldier of the field. He served in a volunteer regiment, and his account records the difference in attitudes of the volunteer soldier and the professional one.

Another enlisted man, William White, was notably intelligent and observant. He was often selected from among the ranks of the 2nd Cavalry for special assignments, such as Lieutenant Gustavus C. Doane's exploration of the Snake River, escort duty for Secretary of War Belknap, and other unusual duties. White was not typical of the enlisted ranks, being both better educated and a member of the International Order of Good Templars, an early-day temperance organization. His observations show none of the bitterness of Ewert, and are broader-based than those of Spotts. He saw much action, including the Sioux War of 1876, and left a thoroughly delightful memoir. White told his story in the 1930s to Thomas B. Marquis, author of two previous books: Memoirs of a White Crow Indian (1928), an account of frontiersman Thomas H. Leforge; and Wooden Leg, a Warrior Who Fought Custer (1931), an Indian account of the Custer battle. Marquis maintained his reputation as a skillful writer when he wrote down William White's story in Custer, Cavalry and Crows, but the book was not published until 1976.

An enterprising newspaper correspondent could sometimes gain almost as much first-hand battle experience as a scout, enlisted man or officer. Newspaper reports written by "the gem of the lot," as General Charles King aptly described correspondent John F. Finerty, were collected and published in 1955 as War-Path and Bivouac: The Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition. In the tradition of all great war correspondents, Finerty wrote from the point of action, often setting aside his pen for his rifle. He earned the honor of being praised by George Crook in his dispatches to General Sheridan. A classic, Finerty's War-Path and Bivouac has been reprinted several times, making this outstanding account readily available.

Another collection of newspaper reports, Pine Ridge 1890 (1971) is unfortunately almost unknown because of its limited printing of only two thousand copies. Written by William Fitch Kelley for the Nebraska State Journal of Lincoln, these daily dispatches stood as the only relatively unbiased appraisal of this most tragic affair until recent times. Kelley was the only reporter with the 7th Cavalry at the actual engagement; and while it may never be definitely established who initiated the tragedy of Wounded Knee, here is Kelley's account: "As this task was about completed the Indians, surrounded by Companies K and B, began to move. All of a sudden they threw their hands to the ground and began firing rapidly at the troops, not twenty feet away."

With renewed interest in the role played by women, more accounts of individual wives of the frontier army continue to see print, although the only attempt, to date, to create an overall picture of the role played by the wives and dependents of the Indian-Fighting Army is that of Patricia Y. Stallard's Glittering Misery (1978). The title of her book well describes the lot of the majority of army dependents, most not nearly so fortunate as Elizabeth Custer, nor, perhaps, so exceptional.

Widowed by the fight on the Little Bighorn, Elizabeth Bacon Custer faced life with but a small insurance policy and an ambitious plan. She wanted to devote the rest of her life to perpetuating her image of George Armstrong Custer, and found the answer to both her problem and her goal in writing books about him. The income derived from the sales of these books allowed her to devote her energy to the promotion of her husband's image. Her experiences on the frontier have been read by more people than all other accounts by wives of the frontier army put together. She authored three books: Boots and Saddles, or Life in Dakota with General Custer (1885); Following the Guidon (1890); and Tenting on the Plains, or Gen'l Custer in Kansas and Texas (1893)–all still in print today. All three give an excellent look at the duties and responsibilities, as well as the privileges, of a senior officer's wife. As such, her experiences differ considerably from those of a lieutenant's wife. Since Mrs. Custer moved in a rather elite circle, even for a lieutenant colonel's wife, her books abound with interesting people. She gives the picture of an idyllic existence, writing of her entire lifetime on the frontier as one of enjoyable, though occasionally trying, circumstances. Through her eyes, Custer emerges as a knight in armor mounted on a white charger, right out of a fable of old. Even given this rather glaring lack of objectivity, Elizabeth Custer left some of the most readable, as well as reliable, accounts of frontier life as seen by a woman. That George Armstrong Custer dominates American thought and writing on the Indian Wars is her achievement no less than his.

Another fine account of army life penned by a frontier wife is that of Frances M. A. Roe. Since Mrs. Roe's husband was a second lieutenant, her experiences differ markedly from those of Elizabeth Custer. No more accurate picture has ever seen print, however, than Army Letters from an Oficer's Wife (1909). From her initial introduction to army rank, leaving her sorely confused, to her sophistication as the wife of a captain, Frances Roe leaves a complete view of army life as seen by dependents. Sadly, Army Letters from an Officer's Wife has never been reprinted.

However, Martha Summerhayes's Vanished Arizona: Recollections of the Army Life of a New England Woman (1908) has been reprinted. Martha was brought to tears when her first efforts at cooking with giant mess equipment failed. Tears gained her nothing but a stern reprimand from her husband, who admonished her: "You are pampered and spoiled with your New England kitchens." As would other wives, Martha soon learned to cook in tin cans and to improvise. In Southwest Classics, Lawrence Clark Powell calls her book "a story that is peerless in the literature of that time and place. Not only is Martha Summerhayes's Vanished Arizona a primary source for that period when the Apaches had been only temporarily contained, it is also a love story unique in the literature of the Southwest. Not the kind of unreal story seen on the screen or told by Zane Grey, but nonetheless romantic in its evocation of the life led by a frontier officer's young bride" (p. 273).

Two wives of Colonel Henry B. Carrington also left their memoirs. The first, Margaret I. Carrington, wrote Ab-Sa-Ra-Ka, Land of Massacre: Being the Experience of an Officer's Wife on the Plains (1879), while the second, Frances C. Carrington, wrote My Army Life and the Fort Phil Kearney Massacre (1910). Though separated by thirty years, both women shared the same publisher as well as the same husband. As revealed in her memoirs, the life of Frances Carrington was embittered by the loss of her first husband, Captain William Grummond, in the Fetterman Massacre. Ironically, his commanding officer at the time was Colonel Carrington. It was a small army.

Regardless of its diminutive size, the army's adventures loomed large in the popular imagination. Fiction seized upon the Indian Wars as a popular topic even before the conflicts themselves had ended. Certainly no one had a better background for writing military fiction set in the West than Charles King (1844—1933), who had participated in actions against the Apache, the Sioux, the Cheyenne, and the Nez Perce. Although he never wrote a major work of fiction, he was prolific and his books were widely read. King retired from active duty in 1879, and began writing books which enjoyed instant popularity. His first novel, The Colonel's Daughter, appeared in 1883. In subsequent novels, King moved from the Northwest (A Daughter of the Sioux, 1903) to the Southwest (An Apache Princess, 1903). Perhaps his best work is The Queen of Bedlam: A Story of the Sioux War of 1876, published in 1889. The object of the title, "Old Bedlam," stands today in reconstructed glory as the bachelor officers' quarters at Fort Laramie.

More recently, novels about the military in the West have been written both by popular and by "serious" western authors. Popular author Ernest Haycox, for example, wrote the first significant "Custer" novel, Bugles in the Afternoon (1944)–a classic Western. Haycox's book was surpassed as the best Custer novel by Will Henry's No Survivors (1950). Actually, Will Henry is a pseudonym for Henry W. Allen, who also writes under the name of Clay Fisher. Besides No Survivors, Allen as Will Henry has written Chiricahua (1972), I, Tom Horn (1975), and From Where the Sun Now Stands (1960). While Allen's work ranges from Montana to Arizona, perhaps his most unusual work is titled To Follow a Flag (1953), later republished as Pillars of the Sky, which is a fictionalization of Edward J. Steptoe's Washington Territory campaign. As Clay Fisher, Allen's best military work is Red Blizzard (1951).

Whether as Will Henry or as Clay Fisher, Allen has often made use of a simple but effective device that makes the reader believe he is reading history. In I, Tom Horn it is the discovery of Horn's handwritten autobiography in a Wyoming cabin; in Pillars of the Sky it is a monument to a forgotten battle; and in No Survivors it is the footnote that explains that what follows is the journal of John Buell Clayton, from the papers of the Clayton family of La Grange, Georgia. In each case the reader is given enough detail to enhance the credibility of the story.

Luke Short is the pen name of Frederick D. Glidden, another author of popular Westerns who has also written novels about the military West, including Station West (1947) and Ambush (1950). In The American Western Novel, James K. Folsom has written of Station West that "where the traditional detective is seen as one whose profession requires of him the ability to discover the truth beneath enigmatic facts which others find completely baffling, the Western hero is conversely seen as one whose ability to understand the significance behind often confusing facts enables him, should occasion require, to assume successfully the role of detective" (p. 116).

Luke Short's Ambush is a novel about the Indian-Fighting Army. Appearing first in serial form beginning on January 1, 1949, in the Saturday Evening Post, Ambush was published by Houghton Mifflin and later made into a motion picture starring Robert Taylor. The setting is the Southwest, and the foe the implacable Apache, ever a favorite subject of popular writers of Westerns. "Serious" novelists have also found the military in the West an interesting subject. In 1960 Paul Horgan published his classic of Apache warfare, A Distant Trumpet. While it does not strictly adhere to history, it is a fine account of that particularly savage episode of American history. Horgan's book was also to see life on the big screen, but not with the same success as Short's Ambush, perhaps because Horgan's novel focuses more on characterization than on action. In Paul Horgan, James M. Day says of A Distant Trumpet that "the heart of the book lies in the maturing of Matthew Hazard from an inexperienced company commander to a mature man and soldier." Day adds that Horgan's characterization of Kitty Mainwaring "is convincingly done-–the only woman Horgan ever has effectively portrayed. The wife of the third-ranking officer in the post, her life is centered on bitter frustration at her social position and her husband's failure to better it, and most of her time is spent in daydreaming about sexual conquests she plans and revenge she hopes to take on the other officers' wives for imagined social slights" (p. 25).

Horgan's use of the military-Indian conflict as a backdrop for his psychological character studies is proof that an imaginative writer can breathe new life into subjects that have already been written about in scores of books. That the last fictional word on Custer has not yet been written is demonstrated by Douglas C. Jones in his masterful The Court Martial of George Armstrong Custer (1976). Jones's book is all the more remarkable because it is his first work of fiction. Each previous novelist approaching the Battle of the Little Bighorn has had one seemingly insurmountable problem to overcome; since no white man survived, how could the story be told and credibility maintained? The device most often used (as in No Survivors) is the persona of a renegade fighting with the Indians. However, since to have any white survivor is to depart from the facts, Jones took this device to its ultimate conclusion. His survivor is Custer himself. Even in the telling of the story, Jones has devised a brilliant ploy: a court martial. Here each person can relate his own tale, and even Custer has his say. That each character, or in this case each witness, performs with great historical fidelity, is testimony to the fact that Jones has researched the era and the event in depth. From bestseller in hardcover, to mass market paperback, to a television production as a program in the fine Hallmark Hall of Fame series, The Court Martial of George Armstrong Custer will unquestionably be a major influence on future fiction about the West.

As if to prove that he was no one-shot author, Jones went on to write two more excellent works in the field of military western fiction. The first was Arrest Sitting Bull (1977), followed by A Creek Called Wounded Knee (1978). Both can be considered part of the Custer story, for Sitting Bull is the last major survivor from the Custer tragedy, and many consider Wounded Knee the final act in the drama begun on the Little Bighorn in 1876.

Twelve years before Jones's first Custer novel was published, an eastern author had already conclusively shown the value to novelists of the huge number of primary accounts and of secondary histories of the Indian Wars in the West. Written in the New York Public Library, where its author supported his fictional creations with a historical background gathered from primary and secondary sources, Thomas Berger's Little Big Man (1964) "is one of the best American western novels," as Delbert Wylder contended in a Western American Literature article. Berger's solution to the no-survivor problem was to create Jack Crabb, a white character who was raised by Indians, but who was one of Custer's scouts at the Little Bighorn, being saved only because one of the Indians recognized him.

Both Berger and Jones changed some historical facts in order to make their readers see an overall historical truth; their fictions provide interpretations of western history. The vast treasury of histories and primary accounts of military life in the nineteenth-century West is bound to stimulate new fictional works with new interpretations. But since succeeding generations of western novelists will have for models novels like those by Berger and Jones, western military fiction, growing in complexity and allusiveness, will become a body of historically grounded literature as philosophically and aesthetically resonant as that based on the Trojan War or the War of the Roses.

M ICHAEL K OURY Fort Collins, Colorado

Selected Bibliography Primary Sources

Armes, George A. Ups and Downs of an Army Officer. Washington, D.C.: n.p., 1900.

Bigelow, John. On the Bloody Trail of Geronimo. Edited by Arthur Woodward. Los Angeles: Westernlore, 1958.

Bourke, John Gregory. An Apache Campaign in the Sierra Madre. New York: Scribner's, 1886.

–. MacKenzie's Last Fight with the Cheyennes. New York: Military Services Institution, 1890; rpt. Fort Collins: Old Army Press, 1970.

–. On the Border with Crook. New York: Scribner's, 1891.

Carrington, Frances C. My Army Life and the Fort Phil Kearney Massacre. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1910.

Carrington, Margaret I. Ab-Sa-Ra-Ka: Being the Experience of an Officer's Wife on the Plains. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1879.

Crawford, Lewis. Rekindling Camp Fires. Bismarck, North Dakota: Capital Book Co., 1926.

Custer, Elizabeth B. Boots and Saddles, or Life in Dakota with General Custer. New York: Harper and Row, 1885; rpt. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976.

–. Following the Guidon. New York: Harper, 1890; rpt. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976.
–. Tenting on the Plains, or Gen'l Custer in Kansas and Texas. New York: Charles L. Webster & Co., 1893; rpt. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976.

Custer, George A. My Life on the Plains. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1874.

–. Nomad. Edited by Brian Dippie. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980.

Davis, Britton. The Truth About Geronimo. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1929.

Ewert, Theodore. Private Theodore Ewert's Diary of the Black Hills Expedition of 1874. Edited by Lawrence Frost & John M. Carroll. Piscataway, N.J.: CRI Books, 1976.

Finerty, John F. War Path and Bivouac The Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition. Chicago: Donohue & Nenneberry, 1890; rpt. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961.

Howard, Oliver O. My Life and Experiences Among Our Hostile Indians. Hartford: A. D. Worthington & Co., 1907.

Kelley, William Fitch. Pine Ridge 1890. San Francisco: P. Bovis, 1971.

Kelly, Luther S. Yellowstone Kelly. Edited by Milo M. Quaife. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1926.

Marquis, Thomas B. Custer, Cavalry and Crows. Edited by John A. Popovich. Fort Collins: The Old Army Press, 1976.

–. Memoirs of a White Crow Indian. New York: The Century Co., 1928.

–. Wooden Leg, a Warrior Who Fought Custer. Minneapolis: The Midwest Co., 1931.

Miles, Nelson A. Personal Recollections and Observations. New York: The Werner Co., 1896.

–. Serving the Republic. New York: Harper, 1911.

Mulford, Ami. Fighting Indians in the 7th United States Cavalry. Corning, New York: Paul Lindsay Mulford, 1879; rpt. Fort Collins: The Old Army Press, 1970.

Rickey, Don. Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.

Roe, Frances M. A. Army Letters from an Officer's Wife. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1909.

Spotts, David L., ed. Campaigning with Custer and the Nineteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. Los Angeles: Wetzel Publishing Co., 1928.

Summerhayes, Martha. Vanished Arizona: Recollections of the Army Life of a New England Woman. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1908, 1963.

Wagner, Glendolin Damon. Old Neutriment. Boston: Ruth Hill, 1934; rpt. New York: Sol Lewis, 1976.

Ware, Eugene F. The Indian War of 1864. Topeka, Kansas: Crane, 1911.

Secondary Sources

Carroll, John M., ed. The Black Military Experience in the American West. New York: Liveright, 1971.

Downey, Fairfax. Indian-Fighting Army. New York: Scribner's, 1941; rpt. Fort Collins: The Old Army Press, 1970.

Faulk, Odie B. The Geronimo Campaign. New York: Oxford University Press, 1969.

Gray, John S. Centennial Campaign: The Sioux War of 1876. Fort Collins: The Old Army Press, 1976.

Leckie, William H. The Buffalo Soldiers. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1967.

Smith, Rex Allan. Moon of Popping Trees. New York: Readers Digest Press, 1975.

Stallard, Patricia Y. Glittering Misery: Dependents of the Indian Fighting Army. Fort Collins: The Old Army Press, 1978; and San Rafael: Presidio Press, 1978.

Stewart, Edgar I. Custer's Luck. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1955.

Thrapp, Dan L. The Conquest of Apacheria. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1967.

–. General Crook and the Sierra Madre Adventure. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972.

Utley, Robert M. Frontier Regulars: The United States Army and the Indian, 1866— 1890. New York: Macmillan, 1973.

–. Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 1848—1865. New York: Macmillan, 1967. –. The Last Days of the Sioux Nation. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961.

Vaughn, J. W. The Reynolds Campaign on the Powder River. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961.

–. With Crook on the Rosebud. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole, 1956.

Wellman, Paul I. Death on Horseback. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1947.

Fiction

Berger, Thomas. Little Big Man. New York: Dial Press, 1964.

Fisher, Clay. Red Blizzard. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1951.

Haycox, Ernest. Bugles in the Afternoon. Boston: Little, Brown, 1944.

Henry, Will. Chiricahua. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1972.

–. I, Tom Horn. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1975.

–. No Survivors. New York: Random House, 1950.

–. To Follow a Flag. New York: Random House, 1953.

Horgan, Paul. A Distant Trumpet. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Cudahy, 1960.

Jones, Douglas C. Arrest Sitting Bull. New York: Scribner's, 1977.

–. The Court Martial of George Armstrong Custer. New York: Scribner's, 1976.

–. A Creek Called Wounded Knee. New York: Scribner's, 1978.

King, Charles. An Apache Princess. New York: Hobart, 1903.

–. The Colonel's Daughter. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1883.

–. A Daughter of the Sioux. New York: Hobart, 1903.

–. The Queen of Bedlam: A Story of the Sioux War of 1876. London: F. Warne, 1889.

Short, Luke. Ambush. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1950.

–. Station West. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1947.