Colonel Richard Irving Dodge: The Life and Times of a Career Army Officer

by Wayne R. Kime

Few soldiers saw more of the late-nineteenth-century West and its peoples or made more friends and acquaintances, civilian and military, than the energetic and sociable Col. Richard Irving Dodge. In this first biography of the soldier-author, Wayne R. Kime describes Dodge’s early years, experiences as a writer, and forty-three-year career as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army, setting his life story in a rich historical context.

Between 1848 and 1891 Dodge participated in the Great Sioux War, explored the Black Hills, commanded infantry regiments, and served as an aide-de-camp to General William Tecumseh Sherman. He was personally engaged in the ongoing power struggle between the army and the Bureau of Indian Affairs over how best to solve the country’s so-called Indian problem.

Dodge was a paradox. He admired Plains Indians and lamented the end of their way of life brought on by confinement on reservations and the slaughter of buffalo. Yet he also considered Indians to be “savages” who could be “civilized” only by threat of force. As Kime reveals, the contradictions in Dodge’s life and thought mirrored the ambivalence that many Americans felt about Indian policy and westward expansion.

640 pages, Hardcover

First published March 30, 2006

Reviews

[Olean Public Library]

This is a hefty volume about an interesting, but almost unknown figure in 19th Century American history. Dodge would have been a well-known commander of Federal troops during the Civil War, but his loyalty to the Union did not outweigh his affinity for his southern relatives and friends, and after brave and credible service at the first Battle of Bull Run, he requested assignment as a non-combatant. He became an excellent, although controversial administrator and staff officer. He went on to become one of the most prolific chroniclers of the military’s role in the army’s experiences with Native American peoples after the Civil War. At 513 pages, this is a thorough and highly readable biography.

[Schoppie]

Wayne R. Kime's book is simply superb! This book details the life of a (mostly) forgotten U.S. Army officer and demonstrates that most of the soldiers who served the nation so faithfully on the frontier did so without the public acclaim and press which accompanied officers like Custer and Crook.

Kime is a Professor of English rather than history, and his book has all of the best traits of a well-researched biography combined with an easy, flowing writing style that makes it a joy to read, even though the book is 513 pages in length. The author is the principle authority on this officer and edited and published all of Colonel Dodge's journals, which undoubtedly aided him in writing this biography.

One of the things that I found interesting is that Colonel Richard I. Dodge only fought in one major battle during his lifetime - the First Battle of Bull Run. A native of North Carolina who did not wish to fight against his family and friends on the other side, he remained loyal to the Union, fought in the battalion of U.S. Regulars at Manassas in 1861, and then asked for duty organizing the Union Army so that he could still honorably serve his country. Dodge was relatively well known, during his time, as an officer with wide experience who could take on almost any task and accomplish it well. This included matters of organization, post and road construction, exploration, and campaigning.

Dodge was, perhaps, best known as an author of books on the American Indian and the Great Plains of the American West. Like many frontier officers of his day, he was a mass of contradictions: he admired Native-Americans even though he faithfully served the government which fought them. He loved the openness of the plains and the wildlife even though he was an avid hunter who helped make possible the settling of much of the West.

This biography succeeds, perhaps better than any other that I have read, in providing a portrait of life on the American Frontier during the decade before the Civil War and the three decades following the conflict. Life at frontier garrisons, on campaign, weather in the West, railroads, and hunting are detailed in Kime's book in better detail than can be found in most other sources. Kime succeeds, often through excellent use of Dodge's own letters and papers, in making the everyday and mundane seem interesting and important. This officer also served in every region of the frontier east of the Rocky Mountains, and served as an aide to Commanding-General Sherman. His duty was varied enough that one can find snapshots of the post-bellum U.S. Army in almost any arena. Also, due to Dodge's wide and lengthy service, the reader can also gain information about other, more famous frontier officers such as Mackenzie, Crook, Sheridan, Sherman, Terry, and Pope.

While this book is dense enough that I would not recommend it for the casual reader of frontier history, I highly recommend it as essential to those who have already cut their teeth on shorter works. Take the time to read this book - you won't regret it!