The Border Trumpet

by Ernest Haycox

Two shrewd cavalry lieutenants have hell to pay after they fall into the hands of Antone, a deadly Apache warrior who controlled every scrap of Arizona sagebrush from Tucson to Camp Grant. Reprint.

Genres: Westerns, Fiction

286 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1974

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really torn on how to rate this one. I tend to rate within genre, so this should probably be a 4 star effort -- though I would probably give it a 3 if I was thinking in terms of straight up fiction. On the downside, the plotting is so obvious that you pretty much know how The Border Trumpet will end within twenty pages or so. And yet that doesn't seem to matter much, since Haycox (who wrote the story the John Wayne movie, Stagecoach was based on) places so much emphasis on the human factor. His character development is first rate, and well beyond what I normally see in genre fiction. The story is about a young woman, Eleanor Warren, who is the love interest of two cavalry officers. She also happens to be the commanding officer's daughter, and thus an Army brat from the time she was a baby. Actually, she's no brat, but very intelligent and loyal, and in her own way very much a part of the regiment. The two officers are opposites. One, Phil Castleton, is an ambitious martinet, who she becomes engaged to. (I sort of wondered about the Why of that, but not too much, since Eleanor's sense of duty is so strong.) The other officer, Tom Benteen, has that whole loose jointed cowboy/soldier thing down to an art form. You KNOW how that's going to end. Time and Place: 1870, Arizona. The Apaches are stirring things up. The elements are all pretty standard Western stuff, but Haycox, with his fine character studies, also brings an eye for realistic detail. His descriptions of the land remind me of Hemingway and Cormac McCarthy. Beautiful, but precise. That precision extends itself toward descriptions of small unit battles with the Apaches. Other than guys on horses shooting and charging, I know zip about how the cavalry really dealt with their Indian foes. Haycox supplies real methods and tactics, which by the way adds to the human factor, as soldiers -- and Apaches, sweat, shoot, and stalk each other under a brutal and unforgiving sun. When someone gets killed, you find you have come to care for that character, warts and all. If you like Westerns, highly recommended. From what I understand, Hemingway liked reading this guy. I can see why.

[Jack Massa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read a lot of Westerns - I think Shane was the last, back in High School. So not a lot to compare this to.

I was surprised by several things about this novel, first published in 1939.

First was the prose style, deeply involved with characters' inner states and emotions, and oddly indirect. People seem to express many things with their eyes and the twitching of their lips. Paragraphs of internal monologue jump from image to image and, in some places, leave the reader to interpret exatly what is going on.

Second was the focus on character rather than action. A mosaic of intense and intriguing characters spend many pages observing each other, speculating on each other, and, in true Victorian fashion, struggling to express or suppress their powerful feelings about each other. I was involved and entertained by this drawing room drama, reminiscient of Thomas Hardy or Anthony Trollope.

In fact -- again strange for a Western -- the action scenes were the most uninvolving. Fist fights and gun fights seem poorly described and fail to thrill. Near the end is a long stretch of chase, hunt, flight and battle over intricately described terrain that left me mostly confused and bored.

Overall I enjoyed the novel very much, but almost felt that the writer, by style and temperament, would be more at home writing a romance than a western.

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

3-1/2 stars
This book is cavalry vs native tribes. His stories would have made a good TV series in the 50’s or 60’s. His narration includes a lot of phrases and slang expressions that were popular in the mid-19th century. His descriptions are well done.

“All the surrounding country was badly broken, rock shelter upon rock shelter, and parallel ridges separated by difficult ravines. Pines studded the land, and cactus and catclaw and thin-scattered forage grass.”

“Lying in his blankets, he watched the distant crystal wash of the stars and the thin moon hanging low and smoke-yellow in the sky, and was impatient because of the night’s long delay.”

[Kellyt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well written short story of two rival cavalry officers in a small outmanned post set on the Arizona frontier. Great descriptions of the desert and good character development. The social fabric and interpersonal relationships in the fort are interesting.

[Cws]

W Hay