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My Story
Anson Mills saw frontier service in Arizona and Kansas, where he bravely fought against the Apache and the Cheyenne, respectively. As a battalion commander with the army, he played an important role in Reynolds's Powder River campaign of early 1876, and in the Great Sioux War later that year. His good fortune continued after his service, when he became a millionaire after inventing and improving military items.
432 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 26, 2019
Anson Mills (1834-1924) was an army officer, inventor, diplomat, engineer, and building contractor. Following the Civil War, he devised a woven cartridge belt which, after decades of work and improvements, made him a tidy fortune.
After suddenly losing his wife in 1917, Mills determined to write the memoirs they had planned to write together. (Had she lived, she would probably have proved the better memorialist; it is also regrettable that eighteen years of her diaries were lost in an 1889 fire.) Mills’ memoirs—ostensibly written for his relations—are anecdotal and not the best source for history per se. His dates are hazy, and Mills’ perspicuity about the larger questions of life clearly remain in humanity’s middle range.
Still, Mills’ stories well reflect the viewpoint of a conservative Democrat of his period, the sort of person who believed Grover Cleveland to be the George Washington of his era. In 1913, Mills could still boast of having commissioned an 1861 sword with the inscription: “No abolition, no secession, no compromise, no reconstruction, the Union as it was from Maine to Texas.” Less predictably, Mills opposed American imperialism abroad, supported women’s suffrage, and was at best lukewarm about organized religion, an especially about missionaries. (The portly Mills was also probably one of the very few commentators ever to describe William Howard Taft as “physically splendid.”)
The book includes a considerable number of photographs and a longish table of contents, but there is no index.
(This reviewer is no relation. I borrowed my pen name from Mill's son who died as a teenager and whose grave marker in Arlington National Cemetery includes the legend, "Boy of Sweet Promise.")
After suddenly losing his wife in 1917, Mills determined to write the memoirs they had planned to write together. (Had she lived, she would probably have proved the better memorialist; it is also regrettable that eighteen years of her diaries were lost in an 1889 fire.) Mills’ memoirs—ostensibly written for his relations—are anecdotal and not the best source for history per se. His dates are hazy, and Mills’ perspicuity about the larger questions of life clearly remain in humanity’s middle range.
Still, Mills’ stories well reflect the viewpoint of a conservative Democrat of his period, the sort of person who believed Grover Cleveland to be the George Washington of his era. In 1913, Mills could still boast of having commissioned an 1861 sword with the inscription: “No abolition, no secession, no compromise, no reconstruction, the Union as it was from Maine to Texas.” Less predictably, Mills opposed American imperialism abroad, supported women’s suffrage, and was at best lukewarm about organized religion, an especially about missionaries. (The portly Mills was also probably one of the very few commentators ever to describe William Howard Taft as “physically splendid.”)
The book includes a considerable number of photographs and a longish table of contents, but there is no index.
(This reviewer is no relation. I borrowed my pen name from Mill's son who died as a teenager and whose grave marker in Arlington National Cemetery includes the legend, "Boy of Sweet Promise.")
July 5, 2015
A very well written book by a man who had an active part in the growing west. From surveying out and naming El Paso Texas, taking part in the Civil War and the Great Sioux War of 1876. He was the developer of Mills military web equipment.
December 14, 2014
Interesting read and well written. I particularly enjoyed the portions of the book that dealt with 19th century history of Mexico and El Paso, Texas.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews