Battles Of The Red River War: Archeological Perspectives on the Indian Campaign of 1874 | 
 enlarge | Author: J. Brett Cruse
Creators: Robert M. Utley, Martha Doty Freeman, Douglas D. Scott
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 67148
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 249
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.2
Dimensions (in): 11.2 x 8.8 x 1
ISBN: 1603440275
Dewey Decimal Number: 976.421
EAN: 9781603440271
ASIN: 1603440275
Publication Date: September 30, 2008
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Product Description
"Battles of the Red River War" unearths a long-buried record of the collision of two cultures.In 1874, U.S. forces led by Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie carried out a surprise attack on several Cheyenne, Comanche, and Kiowa bands that had taken refuge in the Palo Duro Canyon of the Texas panhandle and destroyed their winter stores and horses. After this devastating loss, many of these Indians returned to their reservations and effectively brought to a close what has come to be known as the Red River War, a campaign carried out by the U.S. Army during 1874 as a result of Indian attacks on white settlers in the region. After this operation, the Southern Plains Indians would never again pose a coherent threat to whites' expansion and settlement across their ancestral homelands.Until now, the few historians who have undertaken to tell the story of the Red River War have had to rely on the official records of the battles and a handful of extant accounts, letters, and journals of the U.S. Army participants. Starting in 1998, J. Brett Cruse, under the auspices of the Texas Historical Commission, conducted archeological investigations at six battle sites. In the artifacts they unearthed, Cruse and his teams found clues that would both correct and complete the written records and aid understanding of the Indian perspectives on this clash of cultures.Including a chapter on historiography and archival research by Martha Doty Freeman and an analysis of cartridges and bullets by Douglas D. Scott, this rigorously researched and lavishly illustrated work will commend itself to archeologists, military historians and scientists, and students and scholars of the Westward Expansion.
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Excellent Contribution to the 1874 campaign in the Texas Panhandle November 22, 2008
This fine book is an excellent reference on the 1874 Red River War but, of course, not the definitive work on the campaign. The emphasis is on the archeological work conducted on the battle sites, the collection of artifacts, and the interpretation offered by this detective work in clarifying or contradicting the reports and first person accounts of the campaign. As such, it is a supporting work for students of the campaign, providing information not otherwise available.
The volume is very well produced with a large number of illustrations, photos, maps and 3-D topographic representations. It is a little light on text, and as such that's why I recommend it as a companion to Carter's "On The Border With Mackenzie", Leckie's "The Military Conquest of the Southern Plains", Utley's "Frontier Regulars", Haley's "The Buffalo War", Taylor's "The Indian Campaign on the Staked Plains", and other recommended books dealing generally only in part with the Red River campaigns. In many respects it is similar to "Archaeological Perspectives on the Battle of the Little Bighorn" by Scott et al, with better presentation but less definitive analysis and less information to offer. Nonetheless, the authors have accomplished yeoman work, and are to be lauded for their efforts.
The lack of findings, particularly with respect to the Buffalo Wallow Fight and Mackensie's attack on Palo Duro were disappointing, the former due to a lack of artifacts discovered, and the latter because most of the fight took place on private land outside of the park boundaries and was therefore off-limits to the investigators. Perhaps the Palo Duro terrain will be made available for research in the future -- I certainly hope so. At any rate, the evidence is what it is, and this book does add to our knowledge of the campaign.
This is somewhat a specialist's book, but I recommend it to anyone with an interest in the Indian Wars of Northern Texas.
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