Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay

by Rickey

The enlisted men in the United States Army during the Indian Wars (1866-91) need no longer be mere shadows behind their historically well-documented commanding officers. As member of the regular army, these men formed an important segment of our usually slighted national military continuum and, through their labors, combats, and endurance, created the framework of law and order within which settlement and development become possible. We should know more about the common soldier in our military past, and here he is. The rank and file regular, then as now, was psychologically as well as physically isolated from most of his fellow Americans. The people were tired of the military and its connotations after four years of civil war. They arrayed their army between themselves and the Indians, paid its soldiers their pittance, and went about the business of mushrooming the nation’s economy. Because few enlisted men were literarily inclined, many barely able to scribble their names, most previous writings about them have been what officers and others had to say. To find out what the average soldier of the post-Civil War frontier thought, Don Rickey, Jr., asked over three hundred living veterans to supply information about their army experiences by answering questionnaires and writing personal accounts. Many of them who had survived to the mid-1950’s contributed much more through additional correspondence and personal interviews. Whether the soldier is speaking for himself or through the author in his role as commentator-historian, this is the first documented account of the mass personality of the rank and file during the Indian Wars, and is only incidentally a history of those campaigns.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Military Fiction, Westerns, American History, Military History

382 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 1973

Reviews

[Clay Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great work on the life of soldiers on the American frontier.

[Dean Hutson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book, but not for the reasons I thought I would when first purchased.
This is an excellent day to day life story of the Soldiers who served, fought, lived and sometimes died during the period after the Civil War until the late 1890's...the Indian War.
It's about not the Custers, Benteens and other Generals of whom we normally read about during this time but about the common Infantry and Cavalry Soldier....the $13 a month volunteer who was issued old, worn out and obsolete weapons and equipment, who's food was about par with Federal prisoners at the time, who suffered in the heat, cold, rain and snow.
They were, if not despised, at the very best tolerated by those they protected - the settlers, railroads, businessmen and all who relied on their presence to protect them as they pushed westward in the age of 'manifest destiny'.
A most interesting theme that runs through the book is their often ambivalent...and sometimes sympathetic...feelings for the very Indians they were sent to fight. This is especially true in regards to the native women and children encountered on the plains, mountains and deserts they operated at.
It does not shy away from the brutality and killing that took place...on all sides...but this is not a book so much about war but abut the warrior...the often reluctant, always underpaid, underfed and lonely 'Blue Coat' who often joined for a job and sometimes hope of seeing the vast and mysterious 'West' that everyone was talking about.
A large number of recruits were new immigrants to America's shores who saw the Army as a chance to learn to read and write English and saw this as an opportunity for assimilation in their adopted country.
As this was published in 1963 the author had actually talked and corresponded with over 300 veterans of the Indian War period and so their first person accounts are invaluable to getting a true view of their frontier service as young men.
As is true with most accounts by Soldiers there are no rose colored views but there are also no stories of constant combat and horror. Barracks life, discipline and desertions, boredom and entertainment and the one constant of Soldiers everywhere - the lifelong friendships forged by mutual experience, deprivation, hardship, combat and duty.
So if you're looking for some action packed pages of heroic cavalry charges, nonstop close quarters combat with saber and pistol or other such 'action/adventure' writing.....this isn't it. But at the end of this book you will better know the very poorly paid/fed/equipped/trained lonely, often scared and sometimes courageous young men who - for better or worse - were the unsung, unappreciated and sometimes despised protectors of those who 'tamed' the west.

[Kevin Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a wide range of contributors (first hand stories) that it was not a dry research style writing as I was expecting. This book was very easy to read and the flow was good. From many a Soldiers first enlistment to his discharge or death was covered. I was really surprised to learn that there was no basic training of some sort in the beginning. On the job training seems to have been the norm for most during the "Indian Wars". To be fighting against some of the best light cavalry in the western world and not know how to shoot your weapon must have been scary to say the least. Thank You Mr. Rickey for bringing this small part of our American history to light. I recommend this book.

[Wayne Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I served in the Army about a century after the period covered in the book. Not much has changed at all during that period. Transportation, clothing, weapons and grub have improved but the average grunts are still the same!

[Iain · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid reference but probably not to be read cover-to-cover.

[Walter Kitter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good look of what it was, really was like to be an enlisted soldier on the frontier in the 1800's

[George Girasa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely stunning book on first hand accounts of life for soldiers in the old west. Taken from diaries and letters

[Robert A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads like a text book in college instead of a book for leisure. At times I felt myself nodding off.

[Kord Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing style is a bit dry but incredibly interesting and supremely well researched.

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Between the end of the Civil War and the War with Spain that effectively opened the 20th century, the Regular Army -- the “Old Army” -- had as its primary business the suppression of the Indians on the Great Plains and in the western mountains and deserts. There was no conscription and all the rank and file were volunteers -- but that didn’t mean the Army was getting the cream of the American crop of young men. Enlisting was seen by the majority of civilians (most of whom had never met a Regular) as the last attempt at survival by society’s failures. The government, while aware of the need for a small standing army to defend settlers filling up the west, begrudged the expense until well into the 1880s, when a military management revolution began to turn the U.S. Army into a profession at all levels. Dr. Rickey, a long-time employee of the National Park Service, was a leading expert on the military history of the American West and this volume has become the standard work on the role of the enlisted man. The treatment is generally topical rather than chronological, with chapters devoted to recruitment and enlistment, the distinctions between the ranks, military administration and organization, the routine of garrison duty, the material side of life on a post, discipline and the desertion problem (which was huge throughout this period), crime and punishment, recreation and relaxation, preparing for campaigns, the enlisted man’s weapons and equipment, the nature of field service and combat in the West, cowardice and heroism, and discharge and re-enlistment. Besides official reports and Congressional testimony, which provide useful context, Rickey makes use of a very extensive array of soldiers’ diaries and letters, both published and in archival collections, as well as a large number of surveys which he mailed to surviving veterans of the Indian Wars during the early 1950s. Some of the latter led to extended correspondence with veterans, some of whom became officers in the War with Spain and in World War I. The most notable thing about the Regular Army in the West was the appalling degree of hardship it underwent in all sorts of conditions -- and not just when campaigning at forty degrees below zero or a hundred above. Disease was rife, supplies were usually short, rations were barely edible, and some members of the officer class were uncontrolled. Today’s volunteer soldier would find himself hard put to survive. The style of the book is straightforward and anecdotes crowd every page as examples of the points the author makes. This is a work unlikely ever to be replaced.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fair representation of the experiences of enlisted men during the Indian Wars. Based on first person accounts using interviews, letters and diaries the tedium of military service in the west of the late 1800's comes across well. The negatives of the treatment of the Native American population is included but probably not as strong as in subsequent histories such as "Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee." Overall what comes across is that the military experience of the enlisted soldier hasn't changed much either up to that time or since.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good read. It gave you a glimpse of what life was like on the western frontier post Civil War era. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys historical works of the mid to late 19th century.

[Michael Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This 1963 book by Don Rickey Jr. is a great picture of what the average soldier went through during the "Indian Wars." The author uses diary entries and interviews with some "old soldiers" who participated in the "taming of the West" and it is fascinating. Full review to follow...

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing earth-shaking in this book, just a solid account of what life was actually like for a soldier in the west.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This historical work records life on the Western frontier in the cavalry. It depicts the harsh and brutal life that troopers endured and records some of the Indian fighting.

[Stan Cornett]

Another "mythbuster" about the U.S. Army during the period of the Indian Wars.