Stationed in Montana during the height of the Indian Wars, Captain Charles Rawn proved an unlikely hero and an indispensable leader in numerous battles. He took command from a drunken Major Baker at the Battle of Pryor's Creek, saving the 400 soldiers from possible annihilation at the hands of 1,000 Sioux. As commander of Fort Missoula, he led 35 soldiers and 200 volunteers in an attempt to halt 850 Nez Perce warriors. When Colonel Gibbon suffered an injury at the Battle of the Big Hole, Rawn's experience and leadership of the 7th Infantry helped prevent another Custer debacle. Author Robert M. Brown catalogues the career of this outstanding officer and the transformation of the frontier army from a Civil War legacy into an elite fighting force.

Stationed in Montana during the height of the Indian Wars, Captain Charles Rawn proved an unlikely hero and an indispensable leader in numerous battles. He took command from a drunken Major Baker at the Battle of Pryor s Creek, saving the 400 soldiers from possible annihilation at the hands of 1,000 Sioux. As commander of Fort Missoula, he led 35 soldiers and 200 volunteers in an attempt to halt 850 Nez Perce warriors. When Colonel Gibbon suffered an injury at the Battle of the Big Hole, Rawn s experience and leadership of the 7th Infantry helped prevent another Custer debacle. Author Robert M. Brown catalogues the career of this outstanding officer and the transformation of the frontier army from a Civil War legacy into an elite fighting force."

During the years of the Indian uprisings in the West, Elizabeth Burt followed her husband, Major Andrew Burt, from one lonely outpost to another, with their three small children, a crate of chickens, and a cow in tow. Indians, Infants, and Infantry, based largely on a 1912 manuscript Mrs. Burt derived from now-lostøletters and diaries, provides an intimate glimpse of life at Forts Kearney, Bridger, Laramie, and C. F. Smith from the 1860s through the 1890s. Historical events do not dwarf but only heighten the half-century love affair of a remarkable woman and a soldier whose distinguished career stretched from the Civil to the Spanish-American war. In addition to Mrs. Burt's manuscripts, Merrill J. Mattes drew on army records and other primary sources.

"[Fort Missoula] provided a home for the US Army in Montana from 1877 onward. Called into service almost by accident for the 1877 Nez Perce War, Fort Missoula hosted African American Buffalo Soldiers, aviation pioneers, early military automobile mechanics, Civilian Conservation Corps workers, World War II Italian and Japanese national internees, US military prisoners, and a variety of US Army and Navy units. The base bequeathed to its community a level of sophistication and a connection to the national story unique to the American West. Fort Missoula's architectural legacy also reflects the nation's journey from a frontier settlement to a world power"--Page 4 of cover.

In Saga of Chief Joseph, Helen Addison Howard has written the definitive biography of the great Nez Perce chief, a diplomat among warriors. In times of war and peace, Chief Joseph exhibited gifts of the first rank as a leader for peace and tribal liberty. Following his people’s internment in Indian Territory in 1877, Chief Joseph secured their release in 1885 and led them back to their home country. Fiercely principled, he never abandoned his quest to have his country, the Wallowa Valley, returned to its rightful owners. The struggle of the Nez Perces for the freedom they considered paramount in life constitutes one of the most dramatic episodes in Indian history. This completely revised edition of the author’s 1941 version (titled War Chief Joseph) presents in exciting detail the full story of Chief Joseph, with a reevaluation of the five bands engaged in the Nez Perce War, told from the Indian, the white military, and the settler points of view. Especially valuable is the reappraisal, based on significant new material from Indian sources, of Joseph as a war leader. The new introduction by Nicole Tonkovich explores the continuing relevance of Chief Joseph and the lasting significance of Howard’s work during the era of Angie Debo, Alice Marriott, and Muriel H. Wright.

This entire account is designed to outline briefly some of the major threads which make up the larger pattern of the development of a settled civilization during the territorial period. By Merrill G. Burlingame, Ph. D., Professor of History, Montana State College, Bozeman, MT.

Includes biographical information on 4,500 individuals associated with the frontier

The history of Fort Missoula, established in Montana Territory in 1877. "That Beautiful Little Post on the Bitterroot" as one commander dubbed it, played a prominent role in the Nez Perce War of 1877. During the 1890s the Fort Missoula Bicycle Corps experimented with the military use of two-wheeled transportation, culminating in 1,900 mile journey to St. Louis over primitve roads. The Fort was used during World War II as a Detention Center for interned Italian and Japanese citizens, and eventually became a Disciplinary Barracks housing hundreds of U.S. Army soldiers who had run afoul of the law.