From Fort Snelling on the upper Mississippi and Fort Leavenworth on
the Missouri to Fort St. Philip below New Orleans, the string of
military bases along the western frontier of the United States
played an essential part in the orderly advance of settlement
following the War of 1812. Small, isolated, and insignificant in
terms of fortification-after all, the authorized strength of the
whole army was only 6,000 men-they were nevertheless the
stabilizing and moderating force in the dramatic "rise of the new
West." For twenty years prior to the Mexican War, Colonel George
Croghan, as inspector general of the army, examined these frontier
garrisons with a critical eye. His reports give an intimate,
firsthand picture of what the western outposts were really like.
Moreover, whether lashing out at the unreasonable discipline
prescribed for privates or quietly commending an officer's good
work, he wrote with a warmth and vitality seldom found in
government documents. Arranged topically with brief introductions
by the editor, the reports cover all phases of army life: quarters,
clothing, the mess, hospitals and medical care, army chaplains,
quartermaster supplies, the small arms of the troops, instruction,
fatigue duties, military discipline, recruiting, and army sutlers.
They also contain much additional information on roads, frontier
conditions, Indian affairs, and related matters. George Croghan was
a perceptive reporter, and his account of life and conditions at
the western forts will prove valuable and interesting to the
western Americana enthusiast as well as to the student of western
history. Colonel George Croghan, a nephew of the famous George
Rogers and William Clark, was acclaimed as the hero of Fort
Stephenson, Ohio, during the War of 1812. Francis Paul Prucha, who
selected and edited Croghan's reports in this book, is the author
of The Great Father: The United States Government and American
Indians and holds the Ph.D. from Harvard University. A native of
Wisconsin, Father Prucha is a priest of the Society of Jesus and
professor emeritus of history at Marquette University.
General
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