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Title: Soldiers out doing a job
Review: Utley does an excellent job of showing what post-Civil War Indian fighters faced. First was the transition from the Union Army fighting Confederates to the U.S. Army fighting Indians.Utley documents how that work was made much harder by the cheapness of the War Department and Congress. Downsizing the Army drastically to save money wasn't enough. Congress stuck most the infantry with leftover muzzleloaders rather than repeaters, meaning that their Indian foes usually (Winchester-armed themselves) could bring superior firepower to bear.Meanwhile, the frontier Army had to go through the twists and turns of War Department, or Interior Department, twists and turns on Indian dealings, and in different high-level officers having different approaches not just to Indian fighting but to Indian truce and treaty negotiations.Meanwhile, the grunt work, as typical, was to be done by the infantryman, not the cavalryman.Read the whole story of his struggle to do his job in this book.
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