The entry for September 8, 1865, is terse: "We marched and
fought over 15 miles today." With these few words civilian military
engineer Lyman G. Bennett characterized the experience of the 1,400
men of the Powder River Expedition's Eastern Division as they
trudged through largely unexplored territory and faced off with
American Indians determined to keep their hunting grounds. David E.
Wagner's "Powder River Odyssey: Nelson Cole's Western Campaign of
1865" tells the story of a largely forgotten campaign at the
pivotal moment when the Civil War ended and the Indian wars
captured national attention.
The expedition's mission seemed simple: punish the bands of
Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho that had attacked white emigrants and
commercial traffic moving west along the Oregon Trail. But the
army's western command failed to appreciate either the resolve of
their enemies or the difficulties of the terrain. Cole's men,
ill-provisioned from the outset, began to die of scurvy two months
into the campaign and contemplated mutiny.
Bennett's previously unpublished journal and other primary
sources clarify and correct previous accounts of the
expedition.
Fifteen detailed maps reflect the author's intimate knowledge of
the topography along the expedition's route. Wagner's documentary
account reveals in stark detail the difficulties inherent in the
army's attempt to pacify the American West.
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