First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The Plains Wars 1757-1900 (Essential Histories)

Robinson III, Charles M.

Reference

Routledge

This is the dramatic story of the most crucial year in the history of the American West, 1876, when the wars between the United States Government and the Indian Nations reached a peak. Telling a great deal about Indian cultures, history, beliefs and personality, this is the first book to cover the whole year, rather than simply its components. 16-page photo insert. 3 maps.

A Good Year to Die: The Story of the Great Sioux War

Literature & Fiction

United States

Random House]

General George Crook was one of the most prominent soldiers in the frontier West. General William T. Sherman called him the greatest Indian fighter and manager the army ever had. And yet, on hearing of Crook’s death, the Sioux chief Red Cloud lamented, "He, at least, never lied to us." As a young officer in the Pacific Northwest, Crook emphasized training and marksmanship--innovative ideas in the antebellum army. 
Crook’s career in the West began with successful campaigns against the Apaches that resulted in his promotion to brigadier general. His campaign against the Lakota and Cheyennes was less successful, however, as he alternately displayed deep insight, egotism, indecision, and fear. 
Charles M. Robinson pieces together the contradictions of Crook’s career to reveal that although the general sometimes micromanaged his campaigns to the point that his officers had virtually no flexibility, he gave his officers so much freedom on other occasions that they did not fully understand his expectations or objectives. Crook resented any criticism and was quick to blame both subordinates and superiors, yet Robinson shows that much of Crook’s success in the Indian wars can be attributed to the efforts of subordinate officers. He also details Crook’s later efforts to provide equal rights and opportunities for American Indians. General Crook and the Western Frontier, the first full-scale biography of Crook, uses contemporary manuscripts and primary sources to illuminate the general’s personal life and military career.

General Crook and the Western Frontier

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

University of Oklahoma Press

Lieutenant Henry O. Flipper was a former slave who rose to become the first African American graduate of West Point. While serving as commissary officer at Fort Davis, Texas, in 1881, he was charged with embezzlement and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. A court-martial board acquitted Flipper of the embezzlement charge but convicted him of conduct unbecoming. He was then dismissed from the service of the United States. The Flipper case became known as something of an American Dreyfus Affair, emblematic of racism in the frontier army. Because of Flipper’s efforts to clear his name, many assumed that he had been railroaded because he was black.
In The Fall of a Black Army Officer, Charles M. Robinson III challenges that assumption. In this complete revision of his earlier work, The Court-Martial of Lieutenant Henry Flipper, Robinson finds that Flipper was the author of his own problems.
The taint of racism on the Flipper affair became so widely accepted that in 1999 President Bill Clinton issued a posthumous pardon for Flipper. The Fall of a Black Army Officer boldly moves the arguments regarding racism--in both Lt. Flipper’s case and the frontier army in general--beyond political correctness. Solidly grounded in archival research, it is a thorough and provocative reassessment of the Flipper affair, at last revealing the truth.

The Fall of a Black Army Officer: Racism and the Myth of Henry O. Flipper

Community & Culture

Kiowa and Comanche raids on the Southern Plains in 1870–71 terrorized settlers. The raids culminated in the Warren Wagon Train Massacre and the arrest of Satank, Santanta, and Big Tree by General William Tecumseh Sherman. The Jacksboro Indian Trial led to a confrontation between the state of Texas, the federal government, the Kiowa Nation, Comanches, and Cheyennes. This narrative history explores the Little Arkansas and Medicine Lodge Treaties and factions within the Kiowa Nation.

The Indian Trial: The Complete Story of the Warren Wagon Train Massacre and the Fall of the Kiowa Nation

History

Americas

Fort Griffin, Texas, is rarely used in the same sentence with Dodge City, Deadwood, or Tombstone, yet this frontier town was every bit as tough as the places that went down in the history of brutality. Vigilantes, lynchings, ladies of easy virtue, buffalo hunting, gambling, posses, more lynchings, and lawmen as bad as the outlaws they jailed—Fort Griffin had it all, bustling with a raw life not for the faint-of-heart. Commonly known as the Flat, Fort Griffin grew from a military post rife with Indian trouble to a spirited, rough-hewn frontier community, only to burn out in a matter of decades. Within that time it helped mold characters equal to any of legend. John Larn, the Flat’s second sheriff, was not only considered one of the best lawmen in the county but was also a cattle thief and killer, and died as violently as he had lived. Colonel Ranald MacKenzie, commanding officer of the Fourth Cavalry, was the man whose savvy and knowledge would eventually put an end to the savage Indian attacks that had plagued Fort Griffin and surrounding territories. Lottie Deno was the celebrity of Fort Griffin’s floating world. With a mysterious past and uncommon elegance for women in her trade, her time in the Flat was to end with the tragic murder of her lover. Fort Griffin had all the makings of the legendary western town, and was an archetype for the untamed frontier life. Its story is one of passion, anger, lawlessness, and occasional justice, and will further establish the Flat as a truly original pioneer town.

The Frontier World of Fort Griffin: The Life and Death of a Western Town (Volume 18)

Written for both the specialist and the casual reader, Texas and the Mexican War discusses the pivotal role Texas played in the Mexican War, battles fought on Texas soil, and the contributions—for better or sometimes worse—of Texas troops throughout the war. Since the opening of hostilities in 1846, the Mexican War has remained controversial. Author Charles M. Robinson III describes how attitudes of the era were influenced by sectional, political, and social differences, and, in recent times, by comparison to conflicts such as Vietnam. Robinson draws on U.S. and Mexican sources to discuss conditions in both countries that he believes made the war inevitable. Besides examining the political and military differences, he reveals the motivations, egos, pettiness, and quarrels of the various generals and politicians in the United States and Mexico. He also looks at how the common soldier saw the war. The extensive citations include commentaries on the historiography of the war. The book is profusely illustrated with contemporary photographs, sketches, and drawings, many from the author’s own collection. Besides an account of the war itself, sidebars throughout the book titled “Then and Now” serve as a guide for those who want to visit important Mexican War sites in Texas, northern Mexico, and Louisiana.

Texas and the Mexican War: A History and a Guide (Volume 16) (Fred Rider Cotten Popular History Series)

Texas State Historical Assn

John Gregory Bourke kept a monumental set of diaries as aide-de-camp to Brigadier General George Crook. This fourth volume (of a projected set of eight) chronicles the political and managerial affairs in Crook's Department of the Platte. A large portion centers on the continuing controversy concerning the forced relocation of the Ponca Indians from their ancient homeland along the Dakota-Nebraska line to a new reservation in the Indian Territory. An equally large portion concerns Bourke's ethnological work under official sanction from the army and the Bureau of Ethnology. Each volume in the series is extensively annotated and contains a biographical appendix on Indians, civilians, and military personnel named in the volume.

The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke, Volume 4: July 3, 1880-May 22,1881

University of North Texas Press

John Gregory Bourke kept a monumental set of diaries beginning as a young cavalry lieutenant in Arizona in 1872, and ending the evening before his death in 1896. As aide-de-camp to Brigadier General George Crook, he had an insider's view of the early Apache campaigns, the Great Sioux War, the Cheyenne Outbreak, and the Geronimo War. Bourke's writings reveal much about military life on the western frontier, but he also was a noted ethnologist, writing extensive descriptions of American Indian civilization and illustrating his diaries with sketches and photographs. Previously, researchers could consult only a small part of Bourke’s diary material in various publications, or else take a research trip to the archive and microfilm housed at West Point. Now, for the first time, the 124 manuscript volumes of the Bourke diaries are being compiled, edited, and annotated by Charles M. Robinson III in an easily accessible form to the modern researcher. This fifth volume opens at Fort Wingate as Bourke prepares to visit the Navajos. Next, at the Pine River Agency, he is witness to the Sun Dance, where despite his discomfort at what he saw, he noted that during the Sun Dance piles of food and clothing were contributed by the Indians themselves, to relieve the poor among their people. Bourke continued his travels among the Zunis, the Rio Grande pueblos, and finally, with the Hopis to attend the Hopi Snake dance. The volume concludes at Fort Apache, Arizona, which is stirring with excitement over the activities of the Apache medicine man, Nakai’-dokli’ni, which Bourke spelled Na Kay do Klinni. This would erupt into bloodshed less than a week later. Volume Five is especially important because it is the first in this series to deal almost exclusively with Bourke’s ethnological research. Aside from a brief trip to the East Coast, most of the text involves his observations either during the Great Oglala Sun Dance of 1881, or among the pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona. Bourke’s account of the Sun Dance is particularly significant because it was the last one held by the Oglalas. The Hopi material in this volume served as the basis of The Snake Dance of the Moquis of Arizona, published three years later in 1884, and perhaps his best-known work after On the Border with Crook. Extensively annotated and with a biographical appendix on Indians, civilians, and military personnel named in the diaries, this book will appeal to western and military historians, students of American Indian life and culture, and to anyone interested in the development of the American West.

The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke, Volume 5: May 23, 1881-August 26, 1881

Bad Hand: A Biography of General Ranald S. Mackenzie

A Civil War hero, victorious Indian fighter and eventual madman, General Ranald S. Mackenzie's fascinating life, his brilliant accomplishments, and his descent into madness are brought to life in a complete and thoroughly researched biography that reestablishes his importance in the history of Texas and the United States. Foreword by Stan Hoig.

State House Press

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