Guest Post By John Hughes
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Jeremy Agnew’s Life of a Soldier on the Western Frontier (2008) provides detailed insight into how US Army soldiers lived and fought in the later half of the 1800s. It traces the origins of the conflict from early settlers and routes that connected the East to the West through tribal lands. This inevitability led to conflict and the deployment of the US Army before, during and after the Civil War to protect the settlers and pacify the Indians.
Agnew goes into tremendous detail to describe the Army’s operations. He describes the evolution of weaponry and tactics to the construction and later abandonment of over 150 outposts constructed along key lines of movement. Many interesting photographs of life in the frontier Army augment the book’s descriptions.
As a former soldier, I found it fascinating to discover the hardships and lifestyle that the American soldiers had to endure on the frontiers. For just $13 a month, soldiers served in enlistment periods of five years at a time in the Cavalry and Infantry.
The book also describes the cultures of the various Indian tribes that the US Army encountered during the frontier wars. In this sense, it attempts to provide a somewhat balanced perspective of the war. The Army was not on a crusade of genocide as is sometimes described in today’s academic circles. Rather, it supervised the movement of Indians to reservations and fought when this was resisted by Native Americans. Of course, there were many massacres committed on both sides along the way.
The books ends with a challenge to view the US Army’s actions in the context of the times, not by modern standards of ethics and politics.
“The clashes between the US Army and the American Indians during the second half of the nineteenth century have been analyzed, glorified, vilified, and romanticized. But the soldiers who fought in the Indian Wars were neither heroes nor villains. Rather, they were ordinary men doing the job they were sent to do, a job that reflected the goals and policies of the United States government and the desires of the general population to conquer and settle the American frontier. For better or worse, these soldiers accomplished their task, and they did so under difficulty and dangerous conditions.
In hindsight and with the perspective of modern morality, many may debate the rights and wrongs of what happened during this period of American history. Regardless of these judgements, however, there is little doubt that the United States, particularly the West, was forever transformed by these men and their actions.”1
As the US descends deeper into its culture war, books such as this are essential to demonstrate that there is more than one point of view in history. As much as either American political party wishes it to be, the world is not black and white. History is never just about pure good and evil like in the movies. The world is actually gray. Consequently, it is vital that America preserve all of its history, good and bad, for future generations to study. America is not unique in its history. Every country in the world has ‘skeletons’ in its closet. Museums, educational curriculum, and other venues useful to educate about the past must be balanced and lay out all of America’s history. Knowing our past and coming to terms with it isn’t unpatriotic. On the contrary it makes us better and allows us to come together as a nation and move on to a better future for all.
1 Agnew, Jeremy. Life of a Soldier of the Western Frontier. Missoula: Mountain Press Publishing Company, 2008. P205
This article shared from Armed Forces Press.
John Hughes Emergency Physician. United States Military Academy c/o 1996. #1 graduate. 3rd Generation West Pointer. USUHS Grad c/o 2002. Four combat tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Author - American Doctor - Coming Home to War Author - West Point's Cult of DEI www.americandoctor.org
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