Douglas C. McChristian (1947-2018) was a research historian for the National Park Service and a former National Park Service field historian at Fort Davis and Fort Laramie National Historic Sites and at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. He is the author of numerous books, including Fort Bowie, Arizona: Combat Post of the Southwest, 1858-1894 and Fort Laramie: Military Bastion of the High Plains.Robert M. Utley served in the National Park Service for 25 years in various capacities, including Chief Historian from 1964 to 1972. Since his retirement from the federal government in 1980, he has devoted himself full-time to historical research and writing with a specialty in the American West. He is author, among many articles and books he has published, of Cavalier in Buckskin: George Armstrong Custer and the Western Military Frontier, Revised Edition; Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life; Lone Star Lawmen: The Second Century of the Texas Rangers; and The Commanders: Civil War Generals Who Shaped the American West. A founder of the Western History Association, Utley has served on its governing council and as its president.

This monumental study is the most complete rendering of the topic I have ever seen. With superb scholarship, Douglas McChristian provides in-depth knowledge on virtually every page. As one of the finest narrative writers working today, he writes entertainingly with subtle wit that can be hilarious, yet he concludes with all appropriate gravity that soldiers of the period, a racially and ethnically diverse lot, were competent overall and performed their duties earnestly and faithfully. McChristian knows his subject like no one else."" - Jerome A. Greene, author of American Carnage: Wounded Knee, 1890""Drawn from more than 350 diaries, reminiscences, and narratives preserved in libraries and archives far and wide, Doug McChristian's thoughtful narrative is a revealing and deserved homage to a remarkable class of ordinary men, soldiers barely known beyond their time but rightly remembered for their grit, steadfastness, and unfailing honor in a difficult and challenging time. This is a smart, richly rewarding book."" - Paul L. Hedren, author of Powder River: Disastrous Opening of the Great Sioux War

Douglas C. McChristian (1947-2018) was a research historian for the National Park Service and a former National Park Service field historian at Fort Davis and Fort Laramie National Historic Sites and at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. He is the author of numerous books, including Fort Bowie, Arizona: Combat Post of the Southwest, 1858-1894 and Fort Laramie: Military Bastion of the High Plains.Robert M. Utley served in the National Park Service for 25 years in various capacities, including Chief Historian from 1964 to 1972. Since his retirement from the federal government in 1980, he has devoted himself full-time to historical research and writing with a specialty in the American West. He is author, among many articles and books he has published, of Cavalier in Buckskin: George Armstrong Custer and the Western Military Frontier, Revised Edition; Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life; Lone Star Lawmen: The Second Century of the Texas Rangers; and The Commanders: Civil War Generals Who Shaped the American West. A founder of the Western History Association, Utley has served on its governing council and as its president.

This monumental study is the most complete rendering of the topic I have ever seen. With superb scholarship, Douglas McChristian provides in-depth knowledge on virtually every page. As one of the finest narrative writers working today, he writes entertainingly with subtle wit that can be hilarious, yet he concludes with all appropriate gravity that soldiers of the period, a racially and ethnically diverse lot, were competent overall and performed their duties earnestly and faithfully. McChristian knows his subject like no one else."" - Jerome A. Greene, author of American Carnage: Wounded Knee, 1890""Drawn from more than 350 diaries, reminiscences, and narratives preserved in libraries and archives far and wide, Doug McChristian's thoughtful narrative is a revealing and deserved homage to a remarkable class of ordinary men, soldiers barely known beyond their time but rightly remembered for their grit, steadfastness, and unfailing honor in a difficult and challenging time. This is a smart, richly rewarding book."" - Paul L. Hedren, author of Powder River: Disastrous Opening of the Great Sioux War

Douglas C. McChristian (1947-2018) was a research historian for the National Park Service and a former National Park Service field historian at Fort Davis and Fort Laramie National Historic Sites and at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. He is the author of numerous books, including Fort Bowie, Arizona: Combat Post of the Southwest, 1858-1894 and Fort Laramie: Military Bastion of the High Plains.Robert M. Utley served in the National Park Service for 25 years in various capacities, including Chief Historian from 1964 to 1972. Since his retirement from the federal government in 1980, he has devoted himself full-time to historical research and writing with a specialty in the American West. He is author, among many articles and books he has published, of Cavalier in Buckskin: George Armstrong Custer and the Western Military Frontier, Revised Edition; Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life; Lone Star Lawmen: The Second Century of the Texas Rangers; and The Commanders: Civil War Generals Who Shaped the American West. A founder of the Western History Association, Utley has served on its governing council and as its president.

This monumental study is the most complete rendering of the topic I have ever seen. With superb scholarship, Douglas McChristian provides in-depth knowledge on virtually every page. As one of the finest narrative writers working today, he writes entertainingly with subtle wit that can be hilarious, yet he concludes with all appropriate gravity that soldiers of the period, a racially and ethnically diverse lot, were competent overall and performed their duties earnestly and faithfully. McChristian knows his subject like no one else."" - Jerome A. Greene, author of American Carnage: Wounded Knee, 1890""Drawn from more than 350 diaries, reminiscences, and narratives preserved in libraries and archives far and wide, Doug McChristian's thoughtful narrative is a revealing and deserved homage to a remarkable class of ordinary men, soldiers barely known beyond their time but rightly remembered for their grit, steadfastness, and unfailing honor in a difficult and challenging time. This is a smart, richly rewarding book."" - Paul L. Hedren, author of Powder River: Disastrous Opening of the Great Sioux War